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Follow The Stream, and 4 Other Things.
March 12th, 2009
Shot yesterday on my pledged one-hour-a-day-with-the-camera walk. Me, my camera, a selective focus lens, and a sense of play. I gave myself permission to suck, to do nothing but “see what it looks like when I do _______.” Dang, I love the shape of the spectral highlights in this one.
Vision - the way you see the world and the way in which you express that – is a changing, evolving thing. For me this implies two things; your vision is ever-evolving, and you can help it or hinder it – it’s up to you.
My craft, if I push hard and keep at it, seems always to be one step behind in its ability to express my vision. It keeps pace, but each time it gets close my vision takes another step. I think one drives the other forward. Think in terms of music. If I pick up a guitar tomorrow it will take me several months to get back to where I was once was (no virtuoso, that’s for sure), and months more to be able to play the songs I want. But as my ability to play increases, so does the repertoire within my reach. I will play increasingly difficult music, and as those songs get easier and easier for me I will seek out music that is not only more complex but that allows me to more fully express myself. I think it’s the same with visual expression.
As your craft grows, so too does your vision, and as it does it calls back and beckons craft to catch up. And then it runs ahead. Far from being discouraging this is one of the joys of the craft – that our growth never needs to be stagnant. It’s a journey of endless scenic viewpoints and diversions. If you love the journey so much that you wish it had no ultimate destination, you’re in luck; it doesn’t have to.
While your vision is ever-evolving, that can be channeled. We are not passive participants in this, subject purely to the whim of neurotic muses; you and I maintain and improve our own vision, or we let it degrade and falter. Either way it’s our choice. So how do we push forward, assuming any of this holds water, and intentionally discover, channel, and express our vision?
1. Work on Your Craft. If it’s valid that our craft and our vision are connected, then the most logical thing to do is remain committed to the craft. I am talking this week as though vision and craft are two separate things you can take or leave at your preference. I suspect they are not. So study. Shoot. Spend time with your heroes or mentors in whatever capacity you can. Take a workshop. Read more books. Try shooting with a different format. Play with lighting techniques. Learn, learn, learn. This is a visual art, study visual language. Pick up a book on design or art history – make your education broad and deep.
2. Stop identifying so personally with your craft. People who find their identity solely in their work don’t do it for any other reason than to be better than others or have their ego stroked. How do you know if you’re taking it too personally? Ask yourself how you react to critique of your work. Does it deflate you, or encourage you to sharpen your skills and try again? If it deflates you then it’s a sure sign you’re looking to be validated not to create the strongest work possible. Of course it’s natural to want people to love your work, but it also stands in the way of creating the best work you can. Create because YOU love it, not because someone else might. Hunger to do it better and you’ll seek out critics not fans. It’s either about you or it’s about the work.
3. Find inspiration outside the photography world as well as inside it. It stands to reason that most photographers look at other photographs for inspiration. And you should. Look at the work of those that went before you, and your contemporaries. But look elsewhere too. If all we ever do is look within the camp we’ll become the artistic equivalent of an inbred community drawing from a gene pool that’s just way too shallow. I guess I’m saying we all need to get a life if we don’t already have one. Spend time with your family and let them inspire you. Go canoeing or traveling or to the museum. Read some books that have nothing to do with f/stops. Live! Do you know the difference between a well and a cistern? A well is a source of water that’s constantly being refreshed. A cistern is a holding tank and gets stagnant over time if not refreshed. Our life creative ought to be drawing from a well and not a cistern.
4. Follow The Stream. Having a hard time identifying your vision? Look to your own work. It’ll point you to ruts in the road, for sure. The ruts are just the most traveled part of the road you’re on and probably need some flattening out, but the road – that’s your vision, it’s the path you naturally fall into as you express yourself. If you look to every frame you’ve shot in the last ten years, what does it show you about what you love to shoot? What does it show you about how you love to shoot? If I look at mine I see a whole lot of children, a lot of simple graphic images, a lot of emotion, a lot of colour. I see lots and lots of cultures that are not my own, and I see lots of expressions of faith. All these things point me towards the vision I already have but might be unconscious of. I don’t shoot weddings, and on the occasions I have done so I still gravitate to simple graphic images, lots of emotion and shots of the children. I don’t shoot air-shows, but if I was forced to I guarantee my contact sheets would be simple, colourful, graphic images. Not a lot of images of far away planes. Why? I don’t care one bit about planes. But even in the world of the air-show I’d see the world through a certain lens – I can find colour and graphic patterns to entertain my eye almost anywhere I look. Look at your work. Look at where the water seems most inclined to flow and follow that trickle – it points in the direction of the greater body of water – your vision.
5. This one’s yours. You’ve been listening to me babble on and on and on. Now it’s your turn. What are you going to do to fuel the ongoing process of finding and expressing your vision?
I think that this week’s post are best read after a strong cup of coffee. It’s good stuff as I enjoy questioning what I do, how I do it and why I do it, but it’s also cerebral and requires a bit of attention. So off to the kitchen I go to fire up the espresso maker.
It’s just like learning a foreign language – just when you think you’ve got is sorted, a whole new world opens up before you.
I’m pretty fluent in Japanese but had to go and see the accountant today. My level of understanding dropped considerably just because I was in an unfamiliar environment. The same holds true for photography, if you think you’ve got it all worked out you probably have a lot more to learn.
David, I’m a relative noob to photography and expression of my vision is, indeed, difficult for me. I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I’ve especially enjoyed it this week.
A couple sentences above ring true with me…
“Of course it’s natural to want people to love your work, but it also stands in the way of creating the best work you can. Create because YOU love it, not because someone else might.”
Great stuff there…I was raised to think of others and their likes/dislikes, and sometimes that gets in the way of my work. Thanks.
Well, after yesterday post I decided to follow the prescribed cure: one hour photo walk (every day), I started reading “Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland” and at the end of the month I will be going to see a Magritte exhibit. Oh and this weekend out shooting with friends, just for fun. I don’t make a living out of photography but I find myself always looking for perfection and that is just not fun!!
Thanks David!!!
Good stuff, David! In response to your question, I know I’m a little nerdy, but I recently discovered poetry
The conscious effort of expressing myself in concise and meaningful words is tremendously helpful in being aware of my thoughts, vision, and the way I see and respond to the world. Even though it’s not a visual exercise, it helps me think and feel more deeply about the world around me.
I’m also finding that literature is a strong non-photographic source of inspiration for me. Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Emily Dickinson…. I have to feel something about the world in order to say something about the world, ya know?
David, We are definitely on the same page recently. I’ve just started the book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In the few pages I’ve read so far he makes two points that I think are very relevant to your post today.
The first is that creativity cannot come out of a vacuum. As our guitar metaphor shows, you have to know your craft before inspiration/creativity really can take hold. I may WANT to discover the next great theory in quantum physics, but I won’t without a thorough understanding of all the disciplines involved. And it is the same with photography. Becoming the next Cartier-Bresson is impossible if I don’t know how to use my camera. Vision is great, but you have to have the skills at your disposal to achieve that vision.
Second is that most of the top creatives, whether they work in the art, science, economics, design or whatnot often reach their best when they explore outside their discipline. And I’m certain it is no different for us. I wonder what conservation biology (my other area of expertise) could teach me about photography?
Thanks for the great series.
-Dave Shaw
Blog: http://wildimagephoto.blogspot.com
3. find inspiration outside the photography world…
we did an assignment last semester (western academy of photography) for our composition and design class where we had to translate the lyrics of our favorite song into a photograph. This assignment blew my mind. i left class to drive to the airport to pick up my husband and listened to my ipod the whole way, (30min) and by the time i got there i had to start recording thoughts into my cell phone so i wouldn’t forget.
As a result i shot something i would have never conceived of doing, and it was SO outside the box for me it was nuts. But it was a BLAST, especially because i love music but cant sing worth anything. it sure got the juices flowing.
i know i have a hard time coming up with ideas like this on my own, and thought maybe some of you would like this idea as much as i did.
If you want to take a peak, i posted it just for you guys.
warning: it looks graphic folks, its about heart break, but its just jello
http://web.me.com/arushton/Violet_Lilly_Photography/Sorry.html
This whole vision exploration concept is frankly frustrating. I so strongly resonate with Zack Arias’ line: “What is my voice? I don’t even know what that really means, but it keeps me up at night.”
I think finally you’ve offered a glimmer of insight into what this is getting at with the Follow the Stream portion above. Vision is the stuff that stays constant in whatever context. But there are two common problems with this: either the context doesn’t change enough to isolate the constant, or conversely the change is so radical it’s hard to identify whether there even *is* any constant.
That is not just true in me, but the photographers I love too. Full disclosure: photographers whose ‘voice’ consists of one gimmick (lighting setup, photoshop action, etc.) do not appeal to me, no matter their commercial or artistic success. I love photographers that jump around.
The vision/craft relationship is very tricky. Here’s a trivial example to illustrate a big point: some great photographers love strobes, and some great photographers shun them. Ultimately who decides which is truly excellent? I don’t know. And if I did, I don’t know if I’d trust them. There are no experts.
I think my perspective on vision is that old axiom that the more I practice, the luckier I get. It’s not so much imposing order on the void, photographer as culture maker, lead the charge kind of directive. It’s a “follow the opportunities and investigate what’s there” kind of thing. And I want to build my craft to be able to take in a variety of situations and do them justice. I don’t know how that relates to this concept of vision…
Here’s a thought that I’ve had in all of this — the quest for ‘play’ that you’re embarking on needs to abandon adult rationality to succeed. (Who asks a child why they play?) That juxtaposes these two factors into a fascinating dichotomy — is that intentional?
secondary thoughts…
We keep talking about Vision as this ever elusive, ever evolving, never tangible thing. After reading Brad’s post
“Vision is the stuff that stays constant in whatever context. But there are two common problems with this: either the context doesn’t change enough to isolate the constant, or conversely the change is so radical it’s hard to identify whether there even *is* any constant.”
this came to mind…
My vision is… me. And i am… my vision.
We are one in the same, and what makes me, makes it, and what it sees shapes me. The constants that brad is talking about for me are, the constants in my life, where im from, what ive learned and the experiences ive had. The changing elements are the places im going, and the plans ive made.
I think the more we understand ourselves the more we have a handle of our vision. Trying to understand our vision, if we do not have a handle on who we are ourselves, will seem draining and futile and our vision erratic.
points 3 & 4 i think speak to that directly, (look elsewhere for inspiration) aka what drives you, where does your attention go in life. (follow the stream) aka youve come from somewhere, keep going…
SO it doesn’t matter if your a pro, or a beginner, if you have a sense of who you are and what you like, you’ll shoot that, and you’ll be good at it and people will look at you and go, wow, i wish i had the discipline to shoot that good that consistently.
If you like to be challenged and grow and change, then your work will reflect the challenges and lessons you learn as you move through the world. People will look at you and say, wow, i wish i had that sense of adventure, and just dive into something so different so readily.
Both groups will, however, be secretly and eternally, slightly envious of one another.
such is life.
Yeah… I’m with Ali on this. “My vision is me.” My vision is what I see. Not what somebody else sees. That doesn’t mean I’m always going to be looking at the same thing, so it can’t have to do with the subject matter (although because of our vision, we may choose to focus on a certain subject matter in order to say something). As David alluded to earlier, it’s not about what we see, but how we see it.
So like Brad mentioned, our “voice” should not consist in a lighting setup or a photoshop action, etc. It should be able to encompass and say something about any subject matter. We have our own viewpoint of the world non-photographically, right? So why should that be different when we put a camera to our eye?
Also, if our vision is ourselves, it will probably change over time. We’re never the exact same person we used to be, and as we grow and experience, and change our perspective on the world, so should our “vision.”
Just some musings…
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