This wasn’t really taken in London, it just feels like a victorian London scene, ala
Jack the Ripper, so I titled it that.
The shadow is actually me shining a small flashlight on her face during a long
exposure. I didn’t realize the shadow would be there but when I looked at it later it
certainly had a very cool effect, adding to the content of the image.
Stop sign #7 – I don’t know what to photograph.
Answer: What are you passionate about? photograph that.
Even if it is your secret doll fetish or chronicling the cutting of your toenails.
Artists who continue to create art are the ones who have admitted to themselves and
the world what it is they love. They have courage.
There are two things you must love to be successful. One, you must love your
subject. You must feel passion and love and excitement about it. If it is old
couches, fine. If it is women, fine. If it is carpet samples, fine. If it is women
on old couches looking at carpet samples, fine. It doesn’t matter what you have a
passion about, what matters is you admit it.
Two, you have to love the process, not just the end result, of creating your art. If
you don’t then eventually you will find ways to not create it. So, if you don’t love
setting up lights and getting all your equipment in synch to create a great studio
image, chances are you won’t do that as often as you need to be successful at it. If
you don’t like climbing out in nature, getting dirty and sweaty and being at the
mercy of the elements, then chances are you will not be a great, or even mediocre,
wildlife photographer.
You get my point? What do you love? Subject, style, process? Admit that and do
that.
Couldn’t resist, a woman on a couch (but without carpet samples).
Stop sign #5 – I don’t have time.
Answer: How much time does it take to snap a photo of yourself behind the wheel
waiting in traffic, the full kitchen sink, the beautiful toy in the sunlight in your
kid’s room. It isn’t time you are lacking, it is imagination and decisiveness. Keep
your camera with you. If you have a big honkin cadillac of a camera, then get your
phone out when you are on the go. FIND A WAY to take the photo!
This photo was at a local diner. It took no more than 20 seconds to get my camera on
the table, take the shot, review the shot and put the camera back down on my seat. It
isn’t time you are lacking.
Part 3 of a 10 part series on stop signs in your head that keep you from creating art.
Stop sign #3 – My equipment isn’t good enough. Answer: Then you would have to
explain why photographer’s work from 75-100 years ago are worth thousands and
esteemed the world over as great photographs when their equipment sucked compared to
ours now. Even if all you have is a point and shoot, it is YOU that makes the photo
great, not the camera.
This photo, by my friend Aikithereska on flickr, was made with a rudimentary pinhole
camera. No aperture, no shutter speed, just a hole in a box. You can’t get any more
primitive photographic equipment than that. And she got a great photo out of it.
The point is, lack of equipment is an excuse and shows a lack of imagination. Go out
and take photos with what you have, quit waiting for a better something.
“A Genius is someone who simply has fewer stop signs in their head.” part 1
This week and next I am dedicating to those things that keep YOU from doing art. I
have 10 ‘Stop Signs’ that can stop you in your creative tracks faster than a head-on
with a semi. They may seem harsh, but that is because they are. Just imagine Simon
Cowell talking to an artist instead of a singer and you will get the attitude I am
trying to put forth here.
Stop sign #1 – it’s boring. Answer: No, YOU are boring. Not the place, person or
event. If you can’t take interesting photos wherever you are, then YOU aren’t
interesting and you aren’t interesting because you aren’t INTERESTED in the world
around you. Look at details, look from the floor, look straight down, look in a corner.
I saw this as we were walking into Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It was the
hostess leaning up against the glass brick seen from outside and it was as boring a
scene as you can imagine. I bet thousand of people have gone by that glass brick
when someone was leaning up against it and not one noticed or took a photo. Why not?
Because they didn’t expect to see anything worth noticing and weren’t paying
attention. Pay attention to unexpected angles and views.
This page was filled with questions that I answered by using letter press letters (the
old fashion way, before digital, of graphic designing text with fonts). The model and
I were at the beach in Santa Cruz, California and I took close ups of her against a
cliff to collage. These were from the proof sheet that was made of the shots.
This is 4th in the week long series from my ‘Sketchbook with Voices’
that I worked in back in the 80s and 90s.
This is day two of the week long series from my ‘Sketchbook with Voices’ a sketchbook
given to me back in the 80s that had an assignment, idea, or statement about art at the
top of each page.
The assignment was to make something with one hand so instead of using just one hand I
decided I would only have one hand in the collage. I loved the idea of a hard to
recognize hand coming out of a figure with no hands. I was turning the two body parts
into a new, unknown body part.
Another weeklong series. This is from a book given to me way back in the 80s. It is
called ‘Sketchbook with Voices’ and each page was blank for sketching. But at the top
of each page was a statement, idea, assignment, or something else from an artist. I
chose to make the sketchbook my photo sketchbook instead of my regular drawing
sketchbook. I will post a page a day for the next week so you can see some of my faves
from the series.
Definitely one of my freakiest collages. The hair pulled back so tight is what first
drew me to the model. I simply created a different type of ‘sensual’ portrait here,
with the senses all colliding out of synch, out of order, within her.
