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HT2520 - Fantasy or Feedback |
Here's a creative challenge that can be a lot of fun. Let's assume that every image in your Lightroom catalog was captured because you, at the time, thought it would make great photograph. That implies that you could choose any capture at random from your catalog and make a good image from it. Can you? Pick an image at random and push yourself to turn it into something interesting with aggressive or perhaps unusual processing. The goal is not to create interesting artwork, but to observe what happens within you as you work with the compromise between impulse and possibility. |
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HT2521 - Aging Issues |
These days, amongst my peers anyway, there's no question that the most frequent topics of discussion have to do with aging. Time, mobility, eyesight issues, dispersal of our life's output, downsizing from a life of acquisition. There's a lot to think about as we creep closer and closer to taking up our permanent residence in the ink maintenance tank — or as Ansel Adams used to put it, "the final wash." |
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HT2522 - When the Image Takes Charge |
Over the years I've noticed a curiosity that pops up from time to time. I'll have in my mind's eye an idea of what I want an image to look like, but when I start processing it imposes an alternative I'd never thought about. Novelists will talk about their fictional character taking on a momentum of its own. I think the same thing can happen with photographs. |
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HT2523 - The True Selfie |
Here is a great quote from one of my favorite anthologists: "To see ourselves we have to use a reflecting mirror — for example, art." Take a moment to think about the questions that pop up in the art life. What do I want to produce? Why do I want to produce it? Why is it important that I produce it? Why is this meaningful to me? What difficulties am I willing to endure to produce it? And these are just a few introspective questions off the top of my head! It seems that art can be as much about our inner-directed questions as it is about our outward-directed expressive statements. |
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HT2524 - The Connection |
It's often said that the greatest challenge in photography is learning how to see. It's been my experience that seeing — deep seeing — is a function of connection. The great challenge of photography is not learning how to see but fostering, encouraging, developing, surrendering to, recognizing a deeper connection that engulfs us in the moment. Making a record by clicking the shutter is less important than having the connection to begin with. I think this is precisely what Wynn Bullock was getting at when he titled his monograph A Way of Life. |
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HT2525 - The Thread That Binds |
The Achilles heel of multiple-image projects is the risk that viewing the work devolves into a popularity contest. Instead of looking for threads and connections between the images, viewers search for the one image they think is the best or at least touches them deeply. Overcoming this subconscious winnowing project becomes one of the great challenges of presenting a body of work rather than a single "greatest hits" image. The best technique I know is to sort of force-feed the connecting idea. |
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