To make or not to make...A tongue in cheek comment has got me thinking about the infrequency of my image making and wondering whether I should be anxious about it!
The question was posed; if we make fewer images as we become more proficient photographers then what would happen if one ever achieved genius level? Would it mean that one would never make an image again? Perhaps the genius landscape photographer would still wander across the land, a forlorn figure, glancing around from time to time and completing a stunning composition in their head but never bothering to get their camera out of the bag. Perhaps they have achieved some Zen like state of perfection but perhaps it's just a case of seen that before, done that already!
It is undoubtedly true that many photographers (myself included) make fewer images the longer that they have been photographers. Rather than a symptom of creeping apathy or rising indifference this is, in fact, a healthy sign. It means that we're learning from our accumulated experience, that we're realising more consistently what images will or won't work before we press the shutter. I'd be very worried indeed if I was still making as many mistakes now as I did twenty years ago!
Making fewer images doesn't necessarily mean that at some point we will run out of images or feel that we don't need to make any more. I find that the longer I work as a photographer the more possibilities I realise for image making, that I see beyond the obvious and notice subjects that a year or two before I wouldn't even have realised could be used as the basis for successful images. However, these possibilities are often more technically or compositionally challenging than my earlier work. And this factor also means that I'm likely to make fewer images.
So, rather than feel downhearted, I view this dwindling as a positive sign. The images that I make may be fewer in number but I feel that their quality improves with each passing year.
5 comments:
It's also cheaper ;-)
I hadn't even contemplated the economics, at £5 a sheet I must have saved myself enought to buy a fast car by now! Now if I could only find the keys...
I'm worried about taking a lot less photographs.. I have a feeling that taking less photographs can be an egotistical thing in terms of 'if I take less photos then my average will be a lot higher'. When we were on Seilabost recently, I took a lot of photographs (well, I did that everywhere) but having looked through them, there are about 5-8 potentially good subjects (I won't say photos as my execution wasn't particularly good in most places). I wouldn't like to think I was going to sacrifice those shots.. What I would like to think is that I'd identify which shots I would like to spend time over. The idea of waiting for the light in one position whilst the light may be perfect for a shot elsewhere makes me feel almost ill to think about (OK.. maybe just a bit queasy).
Like most things in life, it's a continuum. Would Ansel Adams have got the one good picture a month if he'd have only taken one picture a month? As you can tell.. I'm just waffling now.. :-)
I don't think that making fewer images is at all an egotistical thing! I never really think about my hit rate, only about whether I've made images I'm satisfied with. In any case using a view camera forces you to make fewer images, it's just not physically possible to whizz around and capture the light in numerous locations in a short time...
Your not alone in worrying about missing out on possibilities, Edward Weston wrote, "I almost never wait, that is, unless I can see that the thing will be right in a few minutes. But if I must wait an hour for the shadow to move, or the light to change, or the cow to graze in the other direction, then I put up my camera and go on, knowing that I am likely to find three subjects just as good in the same hour." So he clearly had a problem!
Taking time and getting it right is what it's all about – I think you know this really because you wrote, "I won't say photos as my execution wasn't particularly good in most places." You just have to accept that you can't do justice to your subject if you try and pursue all the possibilities. You'll have to let some go – live with it!
:-) hope you know I meant egotistical as in self focused rather than character fault...
I think I'm going to try and satisfy both beasts by using a view camera and a 5D.. perhaps there is no perfect balance, only an acceptance of the path taken. I'm still in 'happily unsatisfied' mode, I hope it doesn't last forever though..
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