Swing
If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.
—Jim Richardson
It’s not always the case that you have the opportunity to stand in front of interesting things. Sometimes the world around you is just gray and mundane, boring, dull, conventional and without any surprises. The days, the weeks go by without any noticeable differences. You might feel stuck, bored, left behind and unattractive. You have no clue of what you are doing or what you are supposed to do. Having a look at your social media feeds just worsens the situation. Out there everything feels polished, unreachable, far away, exciting, dramatic and simply perfect.
1/389 s, f/1.6, ISO 50, 62 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max
It’s not always easy to accept those situations as they are, let them sink in, take a step back and really start looking what’s still there. It might take a while and sure some routine might help, but you’ll get there. Trusting in what’s there, trusting those instincts inside of you and trusting in your own set of skills and interests is best and often the only thing you have to keep doing in order to reach what you really want and what you love.
As a photographer especially under such circumstances you no longer just take images, you’re forced to make them. You need to invest time, effort, skill and some magic to make the things that you see inside of you visible and approachable to everyone.
1/387 s, f/1.6, ISO 50, 61 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max
I often try to think of photography as a form of visual communication. Not all people are alike, some prefer to talk, some use words to write and some just use their eyes, take photos and try to come across that way. Photography as communication can be an excuse if you’re afraid to call your own work art. We’re are all artists, sure. But art often comes with so much cultural baggage, with so many references and role models. That’s not always what you want. Again there’s this pressure to fit in, to claim your space, to compete and to succeed.
I guess my trick into having the guts to make things in this world, to go out there and to show my soul, to present what and how I see, is just by calling art communication. I’m just trying to communicate, nothing simpler than that, right? It’s also a way to switch off my brain, to take a step beyond my concerns and problem solving routines and feeling that inner rhythm, that melody that suggests the next note, the next chord even before it actually starts to sound.
1/389 s, f/1.6, ISO 50, 25 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max
So is this series interesting? Is it interesting enough? Is it able to compete? I don’t really care. It’s there. It’s what I felt. Is it full of stereotypes? Sure, it certainly is. It’s full of pre-established conventions. It’s like using words in order to build sentences. Not every word can be a new invention, otherwise it wouldn’t be the same language anymore. Here I’m just communicating in plain English, I’m casually chatting with some ups and downs, with some back and forth. It’s like sitting on a swing, feeling the speed of motion in my hair and enjoying the slightly different point of views while going back and forward again. It’s like closing and opening one eye after the other in order to discover all the slightly different viewing angles of your subject coming from your left eye versus the one coming from your right eye.
Everyone wants to be an artist. Someday but not everyday. Often art comes incremental, step by step, photo by photo, technique by technique, vision by vision. I love being on that journey, where ever it may take me. Where ever it may take you.