Postcards from the Creative Journey

628 The Joy of Making Mistakes

A wonderful aspect of digital photography is the number of failures dramatically increases. Another great thing about digital photography is that it’s almost impossible to make a technical error. With automagic exposure and focusing it almost (note I said almost) impossible to make a technically poor photograph. Now, all our errors can be squarely blamed on our poor aesthetic choices. This was not the case in the analog world. There were so many routes to failure in the manual camera and film world the first goal was to be technically proficient. Getting to and beyond that point was a major achievement. With that hurdle all but removed, you are now free to concentrate on making errors in the realm of aesthetics. That is a huge improvement in the creative process. 

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Church in Bamberg, Germany. I had to wait and wait until this scene was not filled with noisy tourists coming in and out of the church. All the while I am (im)patiently waiting for the tourists to get out of my way, I am wondering (a) if the image I am intent on capturing is going to be worth the wait, (b) should I just make a bunch of images with the tourists in the way and then layer them up in photoshop and erase the people, or (c) is the image about how the tourists arrange themselves in a specific space. Alternative (a) won out.

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And another shameless self promotion! Stop by and see the new design for my web site, www.joelipkaphoto.com  All the photo publications are now much, much easier to access and there are some snazzy design elements, too. 

627 Contemporary or Classic? First posted 01/08/2012

All Art starts out as Contemporary Art. Whether it lasts long enough to become classic, or is consigned to long term storage and forgotten about is a judgment only time will tell. As I wrote that, I wondered, is there a section in every museum warehouse filled with artwork that the curators are embarrassed to exhibit? Does MOMA have a secret cache of Thomas Kincade paintings they really don’t want anyone to know about? (Yes, they do – right between the originals of the Poker Playing dogs and velvet Elvis paintings. You read this on the internet, so you know it must be true.)

But I digress.

How do we decide what is going to “last” in terms of art? To me, what makes art timeless is the ability to transcend the current trendy topic and speak to the soul of humanity. Too often we see a contemporary problem or topic presented in a very specific situation. The artist’s point can be made and we can be manipulated to respond to the contemporary concern. Will the response last? Possibly, but I think the art that will make a long term impact addresses the contemporary problem in a timeless manner. Our subjects are contemporary, but the way we interpret the subject must be timeless. The present representation of the timeless questions that face humanity will last beyond this gallery season.

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626 How Do I Love Thee?

We no longer write love poems or sonnets or letters pledging our troth to a loved one. In the modern world, the symbol is the padlock. Our modern lovers purchase a padlock and lock it on a cable on a bridge and then they each throw one of the keys into the river. It is a public demonstration to everyone crossing the bridge their love is strong as the lock on the bridge and cannot be broken.

This demonstration of love is quite popular in Europe. Last fall in Oregon I came across a single lock. While there is no bridge at Rowena Crest on the Columbia River there was a chain link fence that some couple used to proclaim their special bond.

As we approach the Feast of Saint Valentine, it's an appropriate topic for a blog, don't you think?

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625 The Real Starting Point, First posted 06/17/11

With the new technology available to all artists, the method of sharing the work you create is a significant decision. If you start with the decision of how you want to display your imagery, sometimes your work methods are defined. The method of sharing your work is a whole new set of questions that you have to answer as an artist. There are more options than ever available today because we have the entire history of photographic processes to use; everything from daguerreotypes to the internet. Should you choose to combine methods the choices are even more numerous.

There is a caveat with the selection of your method of presentation. Just because you choose to hand color mural sized scans of your daguerreotypes does not mean that it will be great art. Technical tours de force may be of interest to those similarly inclined, but be forewarned, this is a very small audience. Even with the multiplicity of processes available today, the content of your art is even more important. Flashy presentations are both noticed and forgotten quickly. As always, the content of your art and how it affects the viewer remains constant as the central issue of the art you create. What you have to say as an artist remains the primary concern. The medium is not the message. The message is still the message. What you have to say is important. How you choose to say it may assist or detract from the message. Content and Form must work together.

Choosing how to display the work you do highlights one of the basic rules of planning a project. That is, start at the end. The first order of business in a project is to define what the end of the project will be. This makes sense when you really think about it. If you don’t know what the endpoint of your photographic project is, you won’t know what you have to do to get there. And more importantly, you won’t know when you get there.

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624 Discovering the Lost Photograph

Looking at your Lightroom database you just shake your head and wonder, what in the world did I see that would cause me to make that image? Right next to it, there is another photograph that really doesn’t make much sense either. And then, a moment later, you look at a whole bunch of images together and then it makes sense. You can’t remember making the individual images but you can remember the panoramic view from where you made those images.

What make you really happy is this is the first time you actually saw your panoramic vision because you forgot about it. It’s almost like back in the days of film when you turned on the darkroom light and were surprised by a really great negative you can’t remember making.

Huntington Witherill taught me a great way to remember making panoramas. After you complete making all the segments of your panorama, photograph your hand with fingers extended; one finger for each of the segments. This only works if you have five or less segments in your panoramic photograph.

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623 “Can you just stop being a photographer?” From 6/3/12

“I have to wait until this car gets out of the way so I can make a nice photograph from this exact spot.” I say.

“Would you please let me know when you stop to make photographs, otherwise I am going to continue walking,” says the Missus.

I think this is how you know you’re a photographer because you just can’t turn it off. Even on the family vacation with a little happy snap camera it’s something that you just can’t give up. Ted Orland has a great quote, “Photograph is a verb.” Photographers are always photographing, even if they don’t have a camera. You are having a conversation with somebody and you change your position so you can see them in front of an uncluttered background. Items in your house are arranged as if they were a still life photograph. You walk down the street looking for compositions. You’re critiquing the photographs in billboard advertisements. You spy fellow photographers and do a quick gear critique. Do they have a good camera bag? Are there any accessories you would find useful? And then, if they’re making a photograph, your critique extends to their photographic form and the visualization of their selected composition.

You never tire of looking, composing, arranging, wondering if changing your position may improve your composition. Visual thinking and communicating are your stock in trade, so you really can’t stop being a photographer. Even when you are on vacation.

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622 Just Stuff

The sign on the front of the building said “Just Stuff.” And that’s what was inside. Stuff. Lots of stuff, stacked on shelves, tables and on the floor. The larger stuff was outside, leaning against the side of the building. If you need some stuff, this was the place to find it and buy it.

I didn't buy any stuff, because I already have too much stuff I've carried around for years, well, make that decades. We still have unopened moving boxes with multiple tags on them. It's pretty obvious we don't need what's in the boxes because they haven't been opened for decades. But we still have our stuff. 

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621 Always More Questions than Answers, From 2/5/11

Photographing abandoned buildings is an enjoyable experience for me. I am comfortable working in an environment that most people would not consider the least bit attractive. When photographing abandoned buildings I often find puzzling arrangements. I wonder, “How did this happen to be this way?” On the second floor of the Shoshone building in Wallace, Idaho there is a sink tipped up in the corner, plumbing on the floor and a stove in the middle of the room. A sketch is on top of the stove. Judging from the style of illustration, it has been there for decades. Why? Who left it there? What was it going to be? Why did the artist stop at the point they did? Who put it on top of the stove? There’s an answer there, and a story that is probably makes it even better, but this is all I can see through my viewfinder. I want to know more, but I never will.

I think the best photographs ask questions and give you the opportunity to make up the answers.

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620 Working at the Store

Little Jeb couldn’t understand how Old Levi organized the shelves in the store. As far as the young man could figure, Old Levi’s arrangement of his products seemed to be based on what could fit on each shelf, or how he could hang it from the rafters. None of it made sense to Little Jeb, but Levi always knew what and how much he had of everything in the store. When a customer asked for a particular item, Old Levi would close his eyes, wiggle a raised index finger and would glide directly to whatever the customer wanted. He never missed a request.

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619 Compulsories, From 5/8/11

Compulsories. I came up with this description of a type of photograph many years ago. I appropriated this term from the world of figure skating. Compulsory events are never shown on TV. This is the technical judging of the skater. Can the skater do a figure eight, skate a perfect circle and other tests to determine if the skater is competent? We photographers have these compulsory photographs, too. They are especially prevalent in the world of large format photographers.

So you know what the compulsory photographs are:

• Pepper in a tin funnel.
• Sand dune at dawn or dusk. Strong shadows and S shapes
• Nude on Sand Dune
• Zone VIII Church or house
• Zone VI barn
• Tunnel View (I should not have to tell you where this is located.)
• Abstract Rock photograph
• Any long exposure that makes water look like cotton candy.
• Kitchen utensil still life.
• Nautilus Shells or bleached bones.
• Calla Lillies

True confessions time; the first thing I did after I set up my large format camera was run to the refrigerator for a green pepper. I will admit this. If you are smiling now, you know you did it too. I don't know if it is more disturbing that I can tell you this story, or that you just saw this photograph, or that as a polaroid it's still in great condition.

Photographers exist in a continuum of existence and progress. There are those that started before us and have achieved more. We seek them for guidance and inspiration. There are our fellow photographers whose evolution mirrors our own. We seek them for their company and to discuss mutual problems. There are those that have started after us. We can inspire and guide their efforts.

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618 Lennie and the Buck

Lennie’s Brother in Law has a nice spread in the country. The deer love the place and you can see them all the time. Lennie’s sister hates them because they are a huge bother what with their eat “anything on a stem or a branch” diet and spreading lots of ticks and fleas and whatnot. They are really bold and they won’t budge an inch even when you walk right up to them. At least until hunting season; then they all disappear. The deer know when hunting season begins and then they get to be pretty hard to find. That’s why Lennie has never had a lot of luck. The deer kept outsmarting him.

He hunted on his Brother-in-Law’s land for a couple of decades and had never even seen a “wall worthy” buck until that one Saturday morning in September. Lennie finally got his big buck. That year there was a lot of venison on the table. But harvesting that big buck gave him an even bigger problem. His house didn’t have a wall big enough for that mounted head.

Lucky for Lennie his boss (like just about everyone else in the shop) was a deer hunter. Understanding Lennie’s problem, the boss let him bring it in to the shop. The entire crew was happy to have that buck hanging in the shop.

Every time Lennie walked to the tool bin he smiled and remembered that day in September.

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617 Bodie, Washington, From 10/24/10

Wow! Let’s photograph Bodie! There are many iconic photographic destinations for photographers of the American West and Bodie, California is one of them. Landscape photographers flock to them and photograph them until they become clichés. We have seen lots of photographs of Yosemite, Point Lobos, slot canyons, Mono Lake, Zabriskie Point and Bodie.

Well, you probably haven’t seen a photograph from Bodie, Washington. Or what’s left of it. So, here it is. When I was getting this photo ready I thought, “Hmmm. Didn’t Wynn Bullock make a photograph that looked like this?” Mine isn’t as good as his, but I think that just about every one of my photographs isn’t as good as a Wynn Bullock photograph.

You can’t make a good photograph until you start making photographs.

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