Two recent blog entries, one by Paul Butzi (I’ve been riffing off him a lot lately) on photographing “Close To Home,” and Birgit’s “Dune Quest” have got me thinking about the notational aspects of artmaking. Namely, the daily investigation of ideas and how that relates to projects of “greater” importance.
I have established a daily discipline of photography. As I’ve said before, it’s not about making masterpieces—quite the opposite. I’m engaged in a practice of looking at the world through this efficient, profligate format, the digital camera. However, having set the goal of finding a photograph every day that I’m willing to commit to the world as that day’s best, it means that I have to go through a bunch of “not so good” on the way to that day’s winner. And that is having an expansionary effect on my process.
There was a time, like Paul, where the most compelling photographs were to be found anyplace but where I was. He made forays to the Pacific Coast, certainly a compelling destination for anyone working in the large format West Coast tradition. It’s practically a rite of passage for those guys. For me the destination was 6000 miles away, the west coast of Ireland and the set dances and music sessions in small town pubs on that west coast. Two or three times a year I would spent several weeks over there, and after a while I did a book. That I never was able to get a publisher is another story, which means there are only three copies of the book in the world.
This afternoon I photographed my dogwood tree. It has been my compelling subject since I got back into town and saw that it was in full bloom, and I’ve been working it almost every day. Had I known what an amazing tree it would turn out to have been, 13 years on, I would have planted the whole parking strip with them. The garden is often my default “Daily Photo” environment when I’m not out doing something more interesting.
This tree has been, therefore, where I’ve been practicing my craft lately. I peer into the branches, trying to see how complicated I can make the image before it falls apart. I like the density and layering I can make happen by shoving my lens into the leaves and making little gaps where something else goes on. If I look up the light is one way, if I look through it’s another, and if I look down it’s another way again. The blossoms can be solid or transluscent, depending on the day. The pieces of the blossoms might be the center of attention, or maybe I go overboard and make cliched blossom photos for awhile. So I cliché it to death and get that out of my system, and then when I’m bored with taking those pictures I finally resort to something more complex and interesting.
This is how, when I go then to the contra dance, and have to extract the compelling photo out of a complicated and dynamic environment, I have the chops to do it. It’s all about making art so that you can be ready to make other art.
Your tree has wings.
You are a wonderful teacher
Doug,
In terms of photographing practice, amateurs like myself run the gamut, and I imagine pros do also. Is it your impression that daily photographing is more widespread among pros, who depend on those chops for a living?
Steve,
It depends on the photographer and what they do. Years ago I assisted for a studio photographer who never took her camera on vacation. “Why would I do that? Photography is work.”
I tend to have fewer boundaries between personal and professional work than most people.
Doug
Doug,
I also got inspired by Birgit’s post and an earlier one by you where you describe photography as meditation. My goal is not so much to make photographs as to look more carefully when I take my daily walk. I’m interested in how the process of making photographs alters “normal” visual perception into something more “focused”, no pun intended.
Doug,
Are all of these photos (except the first) from the “more complex and interesting” stage? Do you have a personal favorite among them?
I feel like dancing with the second to last one. Troels favors the last one.
Doug,
I’m pleased to see some “quotidian” work. Jer (husband) and I have a blog that centers around where we live and travels we have gone on and part of the goodness (in a basic sense) of that activity is that we must record the quotidian. I very much like going back over the record occasionally, just to re-taste the something of the bygone days.
We’re very disciplined about our postings — we take turns, we post every day, and we use the post mostly for visuals, so each of us has to be aware and thinking about our awareness of our daily lives. It makes an interesting difference.
Doug:
Do drop in on Southeastmain as it is and does what June says. I wake up to it almost every morning.