triptych # 18 (civilized ku # 2712-13 + kitchen life # 51) / civilized ku # 2714 ~ variety is the spice of life / on being original
Wednesday, May 7, 2014 at 12:20PM 
A sign of things to come ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
train to NYC / kitchen sink / sidewalk puddle ~ somewhere along the line / Au Sable Forks, NY (itAP) / NYC • click to embiggenAmongst the rank and file of serious amateur picture makers - for purposes of this discourse let us agree that the desire to find one's own vision is one mark of a of a serious picture maker - the quest to be original and, most often, the frustrations of that pursuit are a commonly shared experience. On that topic, consider this:
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. ~ C. S. Lewis
I totally agree with the notion that "bothering" / festering about / being consumed by the desire to be original in one's picture making, aka: your own uniquely personal vision, is essentially one of the prime impediments to actually accomplishing that goal. To coin a hockey analogy (it is the Stanley Cup season), when a player is mired in a goal scoring slump, it is often said that in trying to break out of it they are holding the stick to tight. The solution, they are told, is to relax their grip, don't think about it, and just let it come naturally.
Of course, just relaxing and letting it flow is easier said than done. If it were as easy as falling off a log, we'd be living in a very different world.
That written, when it comes to picture making originality, there is, IMO, an easy fix ... once a picture maker accepts, truly accepts in the depths/core of his/her picture making being, that there is nothing in the world that is not acceptable as a picture making referent, that every thing is fair picture making fodder, then the game of finding one's vision can finally begin.
It never ceases to amaze and confound me that so many a serious amateur who has solved - at least to a much better than average degree of competence - the gear / technique issues, still point his/her camera at referents which are so utterly cliche. It seems to me that in doing so they are, quite simply, "playing it safe". Essentially rejecting 95% of what s/he sees and sticking with what s/he has already seen pictured. Better safe than sorry, seems to be operational dictum.
While it is true that everything that can be pictured has been pictured, the simple truth is that some of those things have been pictured over and over again while others not so much. And, even though it is often stated / written that no one sees the same thing in a exactly the same manner so therefore it is possible to bring one's own unique vision to a familiar referent, way too many picture makers who are trying to hang their hat on that tree end up making the equivalent of what Robert Adams called "the ten-thousandth camera-club imitation of a picture by Ansel Adams" - feel free to substitute the name of any well-known picture maker for that of Sir Ansel.
C. S. Lewis had it right when he wrote, "... if you simply try to tell the truth you will ... become original without ever having noticed it." Without attempting to discern what Lewis meant by "truth", it is my considered opinion that, in the realm of picture making, trying to tell the truth means trying to be true to what one sees and, in that seeing, seeing with eyes wide open. That is to write, wide open to the picturing possibilities which surround one's existence, minute by minute or, in the case of picture making, second by second.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Frank (no link provided) wrote: "In that context I came across a quote from Francis Bacon that I noted down -
The contemplation of things as they are without substitution or imposture without error or confusion is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention
Or as I paraphrase in my mind - cut out all the elaborate and fancy post processing and just show it like it is.
my response: To be clear about "context" - when I wrote "trying to be true to what one sees" I was not, as has often been my wont, endorsing / recommending straight picture making. What I was trying to suggest was to see without the filter of exceptions / pre-conceptions / popular conventions between the world and your visual apparatus. In other words, find your own true way of seeing. Not picture making, but rather, seeing - looking at the world with an unfiltered gaze.
Reader Comments (1)
Mark
In that context I came across a quote from Francis Bacon that I noted down - 'The contemplation of things as they are without substitution or imposture without error or confusion is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention' Or as I paraphrase in my mind - cut out all the elaborate and fancy post processing and just show it like it is.