“Whatever you do with your photography – don’t ever do… that.”
Our desire to learn quickly, be noticed in social media and not make any mistakes has led to some photography pundits saying things like the above with increasing frequency.
The whole idea that there are pictures that you should never make or techniques or ideas you should never try is confusing to me. What happened to the notion of experimenting with photography and exploring the world and the medium as you work out the best way to create images that mean something to you?
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Thanks for these thoughts Jeff.
I’ve stepped back from the hustle and bustle of Facebook and Flickr and some of the online photography information offerings. I’ve enough gear to use and I’ve heard enough about the rules that I should be observing so that I can take my photography to “the next level” so I’ve decided to concentrate on the “why”.
Thank you, sir! Great to know that you’re out there listening. I really appreciate it. Yeah, there are so many of those catch phrases like “next level” or how to “fix” something or avoid “common mistakes” or “bad habits.” Yowza. All I want to do is make pictures, not feel inadequate while doing so. 🙂
Thanks for being here!
Lovely to hear your voice and thoughts again Jeff. A beacon of Why in a sea of How!
I’ve been on a bit of a photographic journey.
2019 was a deliberate year of expansion for me where I tried all those historical techniques and film cameras I’d wanted to have a go at since the 1980s.
2020 was a year of contraction where I narrowed things down to a small pallet of techniques by the start of this year.
One of the ways I’m going to work is making my own silver gelatine plates, scanning and ink jet printing them. I’d never thought this is where I’d end up. Here are some examples from a project that is emerging https://rogerhyam.co.uk/marchmont-cemetary-dry-plates
What this has made me think a lot about is the “affordance” of a tool. Working with a plate camera and very slow 1880s style emulsions dictates how I respond to the world. When I take my digital camera out the world I experience is actually a different world.
Perhaps you could say something about affordance in one of your talks.
Roger! Thanks for your comment and for your thoughts – AND for your images from your dry-plate project. They are lovely… or maybe a better way to say it is that they are loving… they convey a fondness for the environment you made them in.
Your “year of expansion” was clearly necessary to get you to the place where you are now – picking and choosing bits and pieces of technology to make images that look and feel the way you want them to. Your note that the digital camera provides you with a different experience of the world is, I think, exactly right – much like the difference between taking a road trip on a motorcycle and one in a limousine both get you to the destination, but with differing sets of feelings and responses. I really love your statement “I’d never thought this is where I’d end up” because for me it summarizes every time I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of learning and discovery. You think you’re heading one way, but when you come up the other end of the tunnel…
Your thoughts about affordance are right along the line of some thinking I’ve been doing for a future episode of CP, so…. stay tuned.