i am not a cat person….never had a cat as a pet…never wanted a cat…..i was always a dog man ….dogs were always happy to see me, followed me around…dogs responded to commands…..cats always just seemed aloof to me….now, i have a cat…..
on the fourth of july, a hot summer night, little Simone just showed up….my son Bryan and his love Michelle and i were sitting on my porch having a glass of wine and pretty much minding our own business , when along came little homeless Simone (sometimes Lulu) who just jumped into my lap….end of story…..or, should i say, beginning of story…..
now i am dealing with raccoon proof cat doors, dry food vs. wet food, auto feeding machines and worse, yes, AFFECTION…damn!! ….the last thing i need in my life is a cat….i do not have time for a cat….i travel too much to have a cat or any pet….but, now i have a cat….or, rather she has me….she now owns the place….runs the show….wants affection sometimes, and shuns it other times….does what she wants when she wants to do it and my job is just making sure she is happy …and i now trip all over myself to make sure this is so…..hmmmmm….
it is always the unexpected in our lives which seems to govern….all of us work so hard to plan plan plan and then , well, the “plan” becomes whatever “just happened” with perhaps a very slight twinge of the light of original agenda….most of us i think then take whatever circumstances evolved and then turn it into our “plan” as if we had thought of it all along….pure justification or acceptance or , well, what else can we do???
certainly there must be adjustments in our creative spirit as well…if we all did what we started out to do, then i am sure that the results would be a whole lot less exciting then if serendipity rules…..yet, we also know from experience that not having any kind of plan in the beginning usually leads to no action at all…so, strange as it seems, we need a plan or a thought or an idea at the beginning that we know surely with change as we move forward…we should not be surprised that we become surprised with what actually happens , yet this is the ultimate surprise!!
perhaps we all have different proportions of planning vs. serendipity……and , of course, this is all related to being able to FINISH what we start out to do…i think many of us do not finish what we start because a Simone shows up….changes the equation….priorities get scrambled……what we want today, may not be what we want tomorrow….
i do spend a lot of time with young ambitious photographers or photographers who are trying to make a mark….the single biggest difference i see between those who “do it” and those who do not is simply the ability to finish what one starts….
yes, of course, talent is a must…visual acuity, sensitivity, spacial awareness, timing, balance….but, given two equal talents, the one who can actually complete a body of work is the one who will rise….sounds simple, but it is the most complex compound of all things facing any creative person….i see it over and over with photographers i mentor…..i have fought this with myself all along….i suspect a solid 80% of what i start goes unfinished….folks know of the other 20%, but i coulda shoulda woulda done more….blame it on Simone??
what about you?? do you finish most things, or sooner rather than later give it up?? be honest…we are all in this together…
ok, while you take on this question, i have to go feed the cat…..no joke…she is an hour away , and i am going to go feed her instead of taking a picture….woe is me….
my second name is f not for farrah as in fawcett (rest in peace) but for Firm and Flighty. i can put my mind to something and finish it great as long as it is last minute. i live for the thrill of sleepless nights and scrambling, organized chaotic workspace and extreme exhaustion…
hmm.. ive never liked cats, sorry. they scare the crap out of me when they rub against your leg and purr. im not sure if purring means they like you or they want to play with your wits before they jump.
but as for finishing … what was your question again?
David, I’m jumping into the fire. Your cat adventure has brought out the Mujeres de Burnia, minus Gracie of course.
Our journey has many twists and turns. Yours contains a plastic box with cat litter.
Happy Travels,
Paul
Michelle, it sounds like Simone has found the purrfect people to cosy up to. Yes, cats offer lots of learning opportunities as well as lots of opportunities to give and receive love. I’ve always been partial to them myself. I like a cat’s strong sense of self. Dogs give unconditionally; cats on their own terms. I like that.
It was an absolute delight to meet and spend some time with you and Bryan in C’ville. Look forward to the next time…
Patricia
Imants:
Have you been to Kangaroo Island? It was always one of the places I was keen to go to when I was doing nature photography. Never got there though, I had the money saved up but got the opportunity to sail to the Auckland Islands (Sub-Antarctic)on a sealion tagging trip instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Islands
patricia – so great meeting you at look also! i hadn’t known until i read your blog that your fall photo wasn’t planned…you’re another one with a gift for serendipity, aren’t you? looking forward to more….
we have a dog too…the ultimate in unconditional love, yes, though duncan tends to spread his love around indiscriminately and would wander off with any stranger and not even miss us if they had more/better/any treats. simone actually appears to be more loyal than little duncan. funny.
Great place for car camping some great secluded spots on the south east coast off the tourist run saw no one for a few days, otherwise very civilised.
Well David, welcome to the fold. I must say, I don’t trust people that don’t share their lives with animals. http://www.pbase.com/glafleur/image/113313576
Can’t a body of work be actually made out as surely from the 100% images taken in one’s life as the already published ones, David?
Which would include singles from the 80% unfinished, and even unfinished essays, ie. Extirped from the drawers/attic/archives (just an example: maybe by the P’s widow?), thought incomplete, but actually potent enough to show a side of the P. unknown to the public, or single shots it would be a loss not to publish at last…
Likewise, unlike other arts (literature, music, painting, movies, maybe all save P.), very little photographic body of work requires to come to an “end”, for the viewer/public to totally appreciate it.
Just to make my point, when you turn the last page of “The Americans”, it never quite comes to the “end”, as it does with a novel, a movie, or the last sound of a symphony.
In the end, a photographer has much more leeway to conduct a finished or even an unfinished project. I’s as if you David, wrote a novel called DIVIDED SOUL over 15 or 20 years. It allows, and could actually DEMANDS for a lot of hesitation, giving-up, going back, breaks, un/no/new/-plannedness, etc….
If we follow how the history of P. has been written and counted so far,it would seem that what is always considered finished, is the single image/print, and that when it is about a series, an essay, it usually comes down to very few, if not actually just one, for the highlighted photographer (Think Avedon, many essays, but in the end, AMERICAN WEST will overshadow the rest, save one or two). So that many finished projects are maybe worth mentionning, but not much more than the unfinished ones.
Don’t worry about unfinishing is what I must be saying, as long as you finish the ONE that counts. And only if you are an essayist, at that!
Finished seems quite a uncertain word for me as far as anything creative goes as I’m sure your all as well aware as me.. but as far as working hard and completing as well as I can a body of work ,then Yes.
I have been working on many photographic projects without any funding or financial support for years. This is easy enough at first but to keep it up ain’t as photography can be relatively expensive.
My difficulty is getting the images I’ve put together seen.
I’m just in the process of scanning the years of images I have on film. This is a very slow process but hopefully somebody will happen across my work and like it..see something in it worthwhile.
David, welcome to the feline world. My wife and I have two cats: neither of them actually ours; they just moved in from neighbouring homes. Let me tell you, cats move in and turn you into a servant; and you won’t mind in the least.
As for finishing what you started, I think it’s more important to start. I’ve always been an admirer of the photographic essay but lately I find that it can be an obstacle to photography (the subject doesn’t fit the essay so I don’t take it or worse still, don’t even SEE it!). I’m beginning to like the label Photographer rather than Photojournalist. Perhaps we should photograph first and think later?
Best whiskers, er, wishes,
Mike.
None of us has responded to David’s other point. The one about being dropping our resistance to change. I nearly always respond automatically with a wall of resistance but nowadays (in that last 5 years or so) I am much better at pulling up a little while later and saying, hang on a minute…maybe there’s something here worth letting in. Maybe I should try this again with an open mind. Give it a second chance. Maybe its only my attitude that’s wrong while the formerly offensive thing is actually quite good if I just adjust my attitude to it or take a look from a different perspective.
None of us has responded to David’s other point. The one about being dropping our resistance to change. I nearly always respond automatically with a wall of resistance but nowadays (in that last 5 years or so) I am much better at pulling up a little while later and saying, hang on a minute…maybe there’s something here worth letting in. Maybe I should try this again with an open mind. Give it a second chance. Maybe its only my attitude that’s wrong while the formerly offensive thing is actually quite good if I just adjust my attitude to it or take a look from a different perspective.
HERVE…
yes, of course a collection of the so called “unfinished work” might just indeed be a body of work all its own…what some think is incomplete, others would call complete and vice versa…and you are quite right, just the process itself can certainly have great value…however, i was not necessarily referring to finished essays anyway…i meant, just finishing as in making something out of what you have done period…in my case, finishing means a completed archive on whatever subject or process may have been attempted…this could be a book or exhibition or simply having a clear cut body of work archived as per its intent…
my early family album from childhood which i did not see as anything “finished” at the time, is now considered by my colleagues at Magnum as my ultimate creation…several of my friends (Alec, Alessandra,Jonas, Chris, Trent, Jim G,) and i are over the next few months doing a project called “home” where we are quite literally just telling our stories like the one i just told about Simone…our self assigned deadline to “finish” will be in march…this is to become a series of hand made books…
IMANTS…
car camping is the best….and you live in one of the very best places for it…well, except for the bugs…i did car camp once somewhere south of Townsville and faced a plethora of beetles, which were quite harmless of course, but just annoying in their insistence on being just everywhere…crunch crunch with every step…
MIKE R…
i have never never liked the label “photojournalist”…always preferring simply “photographer”…..my pictures may have appeared in a journalistic medium, but my intent has never been photojournalistic per se…i do often defend photojournalists regarding their intent, but have never considered myself one of them….yes yes i think photographing instinctively is THE way to photograph…still , once you have all those photographs gathered which were made by “instinct”, you still have to make something “happen” with that work…well, you do not have to , but if you feel the work is of value , then you still must complete the linear task of bringing the work to “hard copy”….i do not plan pictures at all…even the work i have done on commission has not been planned…the plan i was referring to was the plan of making a book or show or of just coming up with some sort of outline for living, not regarding “plan” as part of the work created in the first place…
ANDREA C…
i think what you just wrote is the key to everything…having an open mind….at some point, you do have to decide where you are going to spend most of your time in the short run, but i think it is more about the style of effort rather than a specific goal…in other words, i am NOT specific goal oriented at all, but i do have a “way” of working which i know works for me , so i hold myself to my own personal standards of working….again, the “work” is the aftermath of the creativity…the creation of the work itself is as per my description to Mike above…all instinct…
cheers, david
SIDNEY…
please do not confuse my desire to “finish” as having anything to do with being “goal oriented” as per your description of the results of goal orientation …at first glance it might seem the two are related…but there are subtle differences with the examples you gave…besides amigo, you only wrote about the negative aspects of folks who wanted to finish something….what about all the “greatness” in the arts that has come from people who were able to finish??
i think you are quite correct in thinking about the balance between serendipity and “plan”….and you are also quite correct in offering to those who are not able to start/finish a photo project , that life is not over if you do not do a book…of course not, of course not…this is a larger life philosophy question…this particular online venue however is for folks who might just want to do something with their work…that’s all..nothing more , nothing less….
and for all of my efforts at “making things happen” , i too struggle with the financial part of life…if i were goal oriented as per your description, i do not think that would be the case…serendipity definitely rules with me…i just want that serendipity “down”…and i am sure you would deem that fair enough as well..
your writing here is always among the very best…so, in fact, you are in “hard copy”…Burn the book will have your work…just keep thinking, just keep writing….
cheers, david
David;
I suppose it basically boils down to the fact that everyone must find a way that works for themselves. A method of working that allows each individual to create meaningful work.
Sadly, not finishing projects often comes from a fear of failure. You can’t fail if you don’t finish is the thinking. I know photographers who have been working on the same “project” for over 20 years, and have never produced a single thing.
David you have to pick your times…… one never goes camping in summer, stay home and enjoy the comforts of the nest. Early spring and late autumn, the crowds are thin and the weather has that variety of fantastic to miserable without that “doi knia” same same feel. A couple of weeks of drifting around with no balance between serendipity and plan.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them-that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. ”
Lao Tse
This post is beautifull David!
A familly album, even when we are dead, our sons or daughters will make it growing, it should never end… this is why a familly album, more and more today become the most important things in photography…the memory…and it is always in front of our doors…
It just me think of what is the most important target in a year….endind a personnal photo project wich can make me famous or bringing my kids to the mountain, wich just can make them happy?
I have my answer… thanks David!
DAVID
Just a brief (!) response because today some obligations and commitments are screaming at me. I don’t think I ever confused what you were saying, in a very eloquent and nuanced way, with the kind of goal-oriented obsession I was talking about… but after re-reading what I wrote I realized that maybe I created that impression, for which I apologize. Never intended to counter what you were saying, only to offer a tangential observation! Actually, the way you suggested adapting- not abandoning- the initial goals of one’s projects to the things that actually happen in life, so that the outcome is a collaboration or a dance between the intended and the serendipitous, is setting the perfect tone, and offers valuable clues to how things can indeed be ‘finished’ in a very organic way. I admittedly went off on a rant about something that is a bit of a hobby horse of mine. And Jim Powers also has a point here… fear of failure is behind a lot of unfinished projects. So is fear of success, I’ll bet, although probably not as much! What I was mostly cautioning against was a rigid idea of what constitutes success, and measuring the value of one’s time and efforts against society’s, or somebody else’s, achievement scorecard, and on that I’m confident we have little disagreement. Back for more after my obligations are met!
Cheers,
ALL
Over at Massimo’s essay, someone who lives in Indonesia has written his/her views on the essay, seeing it as an unfair perspective, and said “There are many bad things happening here, but one must not neglect the good things.” Many of the other commenters report having “compassion fatigue.”
Expanding beyond this specific essay or body of work, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts about what seems to be a growing desire for the photographer to focus not just on the negatives and show a more holistic and balanced picture of any given situation.
But, as years of exposure to the medium have shown us, there is no objective truth in photography, and the strongest work often comes from the photographer who has something to say, a viewpoint beyond objective reporting. Is it possible that when it comes to this idea of equity in personal storytelling, there is no there, there?
Or, given humanity’s current position and our exposure to the medium, is it now the “right” thing for photographers to approach their work in a way that accounts for both audience compassion fatigue and this idea of fairness? Do you agree that “one must not neglect the good things” ?
IMANTS…
well, yes i do love the idea of two or three weeks of just drifting with the wind….as a matter of fact, i think my whole psychological survival (if indeed i have survived) has been because i totally allow for a lot of time drifting…i will take your word for it on best time of year…seems like i also lost about 200 dollars at a small horse racing track nearby…i really thought i had the “inside track” on the most likely horse to win…i had never bet on horses before i went to OZ…it seemed so innocent and harmless in that country environment…following the spirit of Banjo Paterson led me down a lot of wrong trails as it turned out…but, i sure had a good time doing it….
ANNE HENNING…
you are a finisher…you do change your mind quite a bit, but so what?? you finish….and with such a good spirit all the way…your eyes always sparkle with possibility….next to you, i am pessimistic by nature!!!
ERICA…
what a conundrum ….do a positive essay and folks will ask you “why did you gloss everything over?”..do a reality edge essay and folks will ask “why do you only show the bad side?”…no winning on this one…a “balanced” coverage will most likely mean a boring coverage, so better to just say whatever you want to say about a particular subject and let the chips fall….
as Patricia pointed out clearly, there is just a compassion overload for many viewers of a certain style of journalistic story…i agree totally…too many photographers see a success story like Nachtwey for example and then think they must go imitate him or others…unless they go further out on the edge than Jim, their efforts are wasted…
i think our Alessandro with “The High Tide” won the EPF primarily because he was way outside the proverbial “box” of today’s often cliche form of storytelling…the jurors i felt were even more weary than Patricia of “same old, same old”….
so so many photographers take what they see “winning” in contests and grants and then copy them the very next year…how many “new” versions do you think i will see of photography by moonlight for next year’s EPF??? even when i publish a particular type of picture here on Burn, in the very next hours i will receive a dozen copies of what i just published….i suppose this is just a function of how most people see “success” which is a copy success by rote method..that is how most people do learn most things…it just does not work with the creative experience…
cheers, david
Erica,
I disagree with the sentiment that “one must not neglect the good things.” As a photographer one must include or “neglect” whatever one wishes. Whatever one feels is relevant to the essay/story. I appreciate Nugi’s concern for how the country is represented in Massimo’s essay… it’d be like someone coming to DC and shooting only the worst parts of town. I might have a little resentment watching through something like that, but it’s the photographer’s choice.
There is something about human suffering and conflict that turns some photogs on. They go into some deeply disturbing corners of the globe to reveal, bring to light the horrors within. The notion of beauty, peace and harmony does not inspire them to raise their cameras. It is the dark side of humanity that charges them. I’m not cut from that cloth. I’m glad there are some who are for those horrors do need to be revealed. But it does wear thin after a while. The number of essays here at Burn that fall into this category is not an insignificant number. Is it all really that compelling? No. Why are there so many? What’s the attraction? Is it possible to over-saturate? Yes. I think.
At the Look3 festival of 2008 the final night of slide shows was overwhelmingly death and destruction, wretched humanity. Essay after essay of this… really did nothing but turn me off. Left early as a result. What was the point?
This is not to say it should all be happy, happy, joy, joy shit. Not at all. But MAN! There is more than a fair share of it to be raked over.
I’ve forgotten the original question, sorry. As I said above, no the photographer should shoot what he/she pleases. And the viewer should respond to the images honestly, without reservation. So good on Nugi and Massimo.
Cheers.
Erica…
It depends on the subject one chooses to work on.
If one titles his body of work say “India”, then he should probably treat it in a “a day in the life of…” kind of way and present as many different aspects of the country as possible. If on the other hand—and this is most often the case—one chooses to work on a more specific topic say “mass transportation in India” then the final result will most probably contain more concentrated “negative” or “positive” imagery, depending on the subject and the way the photographer felt about it while creating the work.
Yes absolutely. It may have even a more powerful affect on things than endless picturing of the Other as victim. I refer you to the work of Heide Smith who recently published a book on the Tiwi Islanders of Northern Australia. I believe you can see the pictures on the Time link but I have requested that Burn try to show some of her work. I particularly love the portraits. They speak volumes and the messages are profound and important.
“Is it possible that when it comes to this idea of equity in personal storytelling, there is no there, there?” What does this mean? I don’t get it.
Jim, you speak of some folks having a fear of failure. I would bring up another side of that coin: fear of success. My husband Ed often reminds me that every time I have met with success, especially with my art or writing, I have quickly moved on to something else. Let’s hope I’ve overcome that fear just in case “success” wants to knock on my door this time around…
Patricia
One day I had to face it: I had a pot-belly growing, the couch was my favourite place, smoking a constant habit and a heart attack seemed to be imminent. That was in 2003 when I decided that I didn’t want to lead a life like this anymore and so I made a long term plan to change my life style. I had 3 major issues: eat healthier food, do more exercise and quit smoking. But how? It was clear to me that this would take years – I wanted a lasting change. Small steps were needed. The main problem was to overcome old habits and to cheat my innerer Schweinehund, my baser instincts. So I had to find a way to do sport which is fun, I had to find healthy food which is nice and tasty and easy to prepare. That took me a while to figure out and because I hardly saw any progress it required lots of patience and stubbornness. I never had a fixed plan or a clear roadmap, just the desire to live healthier. This desire stayed strong over the years.
My last cigarette came very suddenly. I used to roll cigarettes, Van Nelle red. One Saturday evening the packet was empty and I was too lazy to drive to the gas station to get some new tobacco. The next day I somehow forgot about buying some smokes and then late in the evening I thought, ups I forgot to smoke today! I had hoped for such a day and once it was there my plan went into action: My plan was not to smoke for at least 10 days. I knew the addiction would be less after that. Since that day in 2007 I am very radical, like a former alcoholic, no more smokes, not even a puff. Today I have completely forgotten that I used to be a smoker.
Over the years I have changed my diet which has some simple rules: an apple a day and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables if possible, hardly no sweets and no extra fat and only one espresso per day, no filter coffee, very little alcohol. Sounds boring, but it works for me. Of course every once in a while I eat junk food as well. Last Monday I was in Amsterdam with friends and a frikandel special and french fries with mayonnaise were inevitable. Delicious!
During summer I am with Churchill: no sports. I hate gyms and that was one reason to move in a rural area where I can get out of my house in autumn and go jogging over the fields for hours and breath fresh air and no car fumes. No matter if it rains or snows – actually it is great fun to run in snow. To be consistent is the most difficult part and to simply get to the start: put on my traniners and get out off the door. So after nearly 6 years I see a change and a plan which has slowly turend into reality. However the main problem still remains to overcome the inner laziness plus to find the time to do some exercise.
Patricia put it right. You need people who support you.
Sometimes you need someone who whispers in your ear: you can do it! Once you have this little bug in your ear – nothing can really stop you. This gives you the confidence that everything is possible and you can grow wings and fly. Okay, this sounds like an Austrian advert, but I think this is absolutely true. Unfortunately there are only a very few people who have this deep inner believe that everything is possible and who perspire this attitude. Very rare. David is one of the few. I am not sure why people rather try to get you down rather than lift you up? Burn is an uplifting place to me. Viva burn!
A good plan is one thing, to make it real, to put it into action is another thing – much more difficult.
And there is nothing wrong in failure. I guess I failed more often than I succeded. Mistakes are an important ingredient for life, that is when you learn.
With photo plans and projects I feel it is a lot easier and nicer to have an alliance with people who have a similar goal.
In 2005 my main ambition was to photograph sailing events. My friends from university laughed at me and had little or hardly no understanding why I was doing it. And I can picture Panos rolling his eyes when he thinks of a lens over 50 mm. Yes, sailing is a special interest sport and the guys who do it are awfully rich business men and all they do is waste money for a hobby which brings fun, but nothing else. No noble deeds. No social responsibility.
Still, I love the quiet elegance of sailboats, I love the sea!
So I had hardly noone who encouraged me with my sailing photography ambitions, except my own vision. But I wanted it so I slowly made my way to some sailing events, borrowed some big glass and plastic containers and off I went. I love to be out at sea with waves shaking and wind blowing – this is when I feel at home. Surprisingly I had quite a bit of success at the beginning and some nice publications and sales, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to turn it into a fulltime commitment.
Today I am glad I made the experience and I look at the sailing world with a more critical eye. The sea still remains home. Maybe I find some other action at sea which is worth photographing.
Never mind my long explanation. Guess I drifted off the topic a bit…
Reimar
P.S. I am a dog person. But I guess you are lost when someone like Simone asks for attention ;-)
Hi Andrea..
I was referencing Gertrude Stein’s quote about her hometown of Oakland, CA. She said her quote, “There is no there there,” after living thirty years in Paris…for Stein, Oakland had become absent of the signifiers that gave the place substance, ie for Stein it had no succession of places, people, or symbols that conveyed meaning..
When I wrote “Is it possible that when it comes to this idea of equity in personal storytelling, there is no there, there?” I was suggesting that it may be impossible to create a neutral/fair story that has a personal perspective..that although the story could exist on some level, it would be devoid of the qualities that would make it significant in terms of connection/authorship/voice/vision, and would thereby be devoid of substantive meaning…
PAUL…
no cat litter box…..Simone lives at the beach…lots and lots of sand…
cheers, david
PATRICIA…
in my experience, it seems to me that fear of failure and fear of success are one in the same….or, at least manifest themselves in exactly the same way…that is, the inability to MOVE forward at all based on either one of these fears…but, i am not an expert..this is just what i think i have seen over the years from a wide variety of individuals…
cheers, david
I am not a professional photographer, I photograph in my spare time. As such I feel completely free to explore anything I want to with my photography, also as opposed to my professional environment that poses besides many levels of freedom and opportunities also restrictions, trade-offs and negotiations. In my photographic explorations I sometimes start projects or themes and abandon them, sometimes I start projects/themes and finish them. Sometimes a project/theme is just one photo. Most of the times projects/themes start by accident, and are then pursued further, or only discovered in hindsight (when going through the archives). And sometimes a project/theme just exists in my head (as do most of my best photographs). And the freedom I experience in my photography environment then feeds back into my professional environment (and personal environment) and makes me more creative and free there. Not sure if this makes sense, or whether this approach makes me a good/better photographer, but it’s why I photograph. It clears my mind of everything else, and at the same time gives me focus for everything else I do.
PS: and yes, I have a cat that tolerates my existence.
All,
This is why I stayed mum on Indonesia. Compassion fatigue like what everybody else was saying was also getting too old for me. Still, I understand things do not change in spite of all the PJ because the people – the exotic people – really do not know any other world than the world they live in, resistant to change even for the better because no one takes a leap or be the first one to leap.
It is such an eye opener to be able to order a rack of ribs or say a lb burger with grilled onions and mushrooms and such without even halfway thinking that you’re going to have to sell your house to have the luxury of eating that. Or buy a colored TV on a whim without having to sell your only four cows that’s given you your daily milk.
It is a no win situation – I think so too. Gloss over the good things and people say you’re looking through rose colored glasses, and then want the blood and gory, and call you names for being unreal. Show the misery, poverty and death, and people get tired of it, never appreciate your efforts or worse — turn the page. But I think the task is to be original, ownership and authorship, but I don’t know how one discovers that.
There is always this human factor that is so sad – no matter how much success another has achieved, somebody else always would want you to fail because somehow, poverty and failure make somebody else feel fortunate about themselves that they are not the ones wallowing in the mud.
IMHO, it all boils down to the photographer and his/her responsibility to the subject and mostly to his/herself to be truthful, by one self’s definition not anybody else’s, and stand by it, and sleep soundly at night.
Barbara,
I too am not a photographer. But I photograph to keep sane so I can move on, bring justice and substance to what I do and even do better.
To ALL:
Below I post a short passage of a great book of Jorge Luis Borges. SUR.
An Argentian writer that I really love.
The original in SPANISH
En el hall de la estación advirtió que faltaban treinta minutos. Recordó bruscamente que en un café de la calle Brasil (a pocos metros de la casa de Yrigoyen) había un enorme gato que se dejaba acariciar por la gente, como una divinidad desdeñosa. Entró. Ahí estaba el gato, dormido. Pidió una taza de café, la endulzó lentamente, la probó (ese placer le había sido vedado en la clínica) y pensó, mientras alisaba el negro pelaje, que aquel contacto era ilusorio y que estaban como separados por un cristal, porque el hombre vive en el tiempo, en la sucesión, y el mágico animal, en la actualidad, en la eternidad del instante.
and a translation in ENGLISH:
In the hall of the station warned missing thirty minutes. Suddenly recalled that in a cafe in Brazil street (a few meters from the house of YRIGOYEN) is a huge cat that was left to cherish the people, as a divinity neglected. Entered. There was the cat, asleep. He requested a cup of coffee, sweetened slowly, tried it(that pleasure was denied him in the clinic) and thought, while smooths the black cat, which that contact was unrealistic and being separated by a glass, because man lives in time, in succession, and the magical animal, in the eternity of the moment.
I said cheers with the last phrase:
“…because man lives in time, in succession, and the magical animal, in the eternity of the moment.”
WOW 100% true!!
To ALL:
When startin a personal essay, the original idea, oftens swchit to another (better or not), but long term projects changes their own ways… can’t follow the same idea over a year… I think that’s a really good point. The result is pretty good.
It’s follows your instinct, “give up thinking” is good point and shooting with yout heart, not planning at all. THen you plan/think when is necessery to edit.
Patricio
This piece from the NY Times
“Is it acceptable to make art out of human suffering?”
Goes very well with the conversation about Massimo’s essay…
Suffering and Art:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/forum/
Cathy, what would you expect these people to say? They directly or indirectly benefit financially from this stuff. It all seems pretty self serving to me.
Cathy and all
RE: the nytimes link posted above. The photographer Emilio Morenatti, who made the photograph of the child under the netting, has been injured in Afghanistan while on assignment. All the best to him and his family.
Patricia/David;
Some of thar fear can also be a lack of confidence. The “why should i think I’m so special to be able to do something like that” feeling you get. I find that the only solution for that is to get out their shooting and see what develops…
Cheers
Kenneth,
Yes, SO sorry I forgot to mention this. Emilio is a great photographer and it’s a tragedy…he survived but lost a foot today.
Once years ago an impostor was posting Emilio’s photos on a photo sharing website, saying they were his. I alerted the people in charge of the site and have been very interested in Emilio ever since.
Panos asked how many more Nachtwey’s do we need.. Emilio is one we truly need. I hope he will be able to continue his work.
BTW, as far as people whose income is photography, doesn’t a mandatory deadline, or having to come up with the kids tuition or next rent/mortage do marvels for finishing a project?
And doesn’t make it easier to have unfinished projects when the finished ones are timely delivered to the editor/publisher’s office, Monday morning no delay?
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes……Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. ”
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Looks like Lao Tse never went thru a Tsunami! :-))))
Herve;
It depends whether you mean “project” as in a magazine article that brings in the dollars straight away; or a long term personal project you’re working on in spare time around other work. The second costs you money and time, but you feel you have to do it no matter what.
Two different beasts I think.
Cheers
“Success” and “failure” are such personal terms anyway. I mean how do you define either one? Success and failure can be determined by how others view/respond to your work or by how you feel about it yourself. By what the work has cost you either emotionally or financially…or what it has brought you in material and/or personal satisfaction. Perhaps success and failure are best measured by what you learned or did not learn in the making of the work. Maybe it is all about what societal change your work might have triggered, either positive or negative. I think of Eddie Adams whom I’ve read always regretted taking and going public with his Pulitizer Prize winning photo of Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam’s national police chief, executing the suspected Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon. I gather Adams felt Loan was a “hero” and that the photo, which certainly helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War, had been misinterpreted.
So how do YOU define success? And how do you define failure?
Patricia
Patricia;
“So how do YOU define success? And how do you define failure?”
As for financial success; It depends on whether you’re trying to make a living out of photography. If so then yes, you need to pay the mortgage.
But to me; success is the ability to undertake and hopefully complete a body of work that stretches your ability and is also respected by the peers you respect.
Cheers
Success or failure is easy to define if you are talking about completing a project. Either you complete it or not. If the terms are interchangeable, then we can’t even talk.
CATHY….
thanks for the Lens link on this particular topic….
JIM..
i read very carefully the comments on Lens…i know personally all of the editors and pro photographers quoted…to comment that all of these people are making their comments because they benefit financially from this type of photograph is one of the more shallow comments you have ever made here on Burn, particularly considering YOU ARE a newspaperman……
you of all people, who benefits financially from everything your newspaper publishes and every ad dollar it raises, which if every story and picture of your very own newspaper came under the same scrutiny you offer here would surely Burn in hell forever….
cheers, david
We were talking about serendipity before… As an aside; the story I’m working on at the moment demonstrates how serendipity can take a hand in life. The story is about a chance discovery of a heirloom apple that research is showing to have wonderful cancer preventative qualities.
It was discovered by chance by an accountant called Mark Christensen when they were driving along a remote country road. The only reason they found it was because they stopped to stretch their legs. Following the research they have given away 8000 trees into the community. Just an example of how life can turn up surprising results…
http://treecropsresearch.org/montys-surprise/
I have been told, literally, I’m going to burn in hell forever for misspelling a name. What else is new.
‘‘Our work is based on the hypothesis that for every disease affecting human health, there will be a plant with the necessary compounds to treat the disease,” Mr Christensen said.”
The research is being done by a tree crops association. Hmmm.
I know where you’re coming from Jim, but let me nip it in the bud. For a change the research has been done in independent reputable studies (in France & in NZ). I do a lot of work in the organic/green field and don’t worry I often butt heads with those that can’t substantiate their claims :-)
The tree crop association was set up after the research was undertaken as a means to fund the giving away of the trees into the public domain, not as a way of validating their beliefs.
It’s not seen as a cure all for cancer, but as a tool that may potentially prevent cancers occurring. Actually, they’re not making any dollars off it; you’re not going to see it on a cable TV “snake oil” infomercial! Like I said they have already given away 8000 trees, hardly a moneymaking business model!