I have mixed feelings about whether photography can be taught or not. The mechanics of it can, the craft, but the art, the vision, the intuition… all that goes into truly expressive photography, not so much. A sensitive mentor can help guide it, can help bring it out, but trying to teach someone how to see can easily devolve into little more than a set of rules.

If I were to give a photography class, I could condense it into four steps that would easily fit on a 3×5 index card. So here, in easy to understand form, are my four steps to becoming an accomplished photographer:

1. Buy, borrow, or steal a camera, preferably one with manual controls. It doesn’t matter what kind.
2. Get familiar with said camera until using it’s controls are as natural as breathing.
3. Learn the fundamentals of exposure so you can use the controls to achieve good results.
4. Practice honing your own unique vision for the rest of your life.

Repeat step 4 diligently, and repeat steps 1 and 2 as needed. Apply step 3 at all times. Sorry… there are no shortcuts, but don’t be discouraged. Practice and you will see progress.

There you have it… end of class.

As I sat down here this morning, coffee in hand, I noticed that this will be post number 200 on photomontana.net. Not really many compared to a lot of blogs, but still… for me it’s a bit of a milestone. I seldom know what I’m going to say when I sit down here to do this. It’s been said, and attributed to a few different people, that writing is easy. All you have to do is sit down and stare at the keyboard until little drops of blood appear on your forehead. I go through that every time.

gibbon river sunrise

I’ve been thinking too that for someone who claims that photography is much like music, that it exists in a realm that goes beyond words, I sure do put out a lot of words about it. A contradiction? No. Not really…

Life is full of contradictions. The only way to avoid that is to lock yourself away… to shut yourself off from living… to fossilize. I don’t want to merely exist like that, so I’ll continue to contradict myself. I like to think that even though I’m a 60-something, I’m still growing and learning and changing.

When I first started a photography blog back in 2007 I really had no idea where I wanted to go with it or what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to show some new work of course, and thought I wanted to ‘talk shop’ with some other photographers. I soon found that I don’t really want to ‘talk shop’… I’d rather ‘talk life’.

I dumped that blog and started over with this one a little over two years ago. It’s both about photography and not about photography… another apparent contradiction. Photography is my chosen medium, but I’m not interested in cameras and lenses and various gadgets. I couldn’t care less about f-stops and shutter speeds, and never make note of any technical details like that. I’m more interested in life and experiences and thoughts and ideas. I use the camera to put that into visual form. Not in the sense of a visual diary, of here’s where I’ve been  what I’ve done what I’ve seen, but more in the sense of here’s something that struck a chord in me, that moved me to make a photograph of it. I can’t analyze it or explain it… it’s visual music, it lives outside of words.  Sometimes the song works, more often than not it doesn’t. Like I said…  I’m still learning.

After a couple hundred posts, this blog is slowly finding it’s way. It’s where I think out loud… where I can begin to flesh out where my photography comes from, why I do what I do, the living and experiencing behind it. Some of you are interested in this, many more no doubt stumble across it, stifle a yawn, and move on. That’s alright. This blog is what it is, and it will be what it will be. All I can say for sure is that it will continue to change, hopefully grow, and likely contradict itself any number of times through all that.

So stick around. I appreciate all the thoughts and ideas you bring here. We’ll see where the next 200 take us… I hope I can occasionally give you something to think about and chew on.

pj

There’s only one rule in photography – never develop colour film in chicken noodle soup.

- Freeman Patterson

My disdain for rules is no secret, and I got a good chuckle out of the way it was stated here. Well said, Mr. Patterson.

Freeman Patterson says a lot of things well. I read, and re-read, a couple of his books back in my early days of photography. They were of course written for film photography, but they’ve been updated for the digital age and re-released.

I found his work, and his words, to be very freeing and inspiring. It was unique and original… not caught in the usual ruts. Maybe you’ll agree.

Photography and the Art of Seeing: A Visual Perception Workshop for Film and Digital Photography

Photography for the Joy of It: An Introductory Workshop for Film and Digital Photography

bark abstract #3

Hard to believe I’ve been in this apartment for three weeks already, and in LA for a year. Time flies.

I’m pretty well set up for the rest of my stay in LA. My daughter and I went Goodwill and found a great table for my computer and scanner and stuff for about twenty bucks. She’s been wanting to show me the Ikea store for some time now, so we went there for a few things. I got a good chair for the desk, a bookshelf, and a few other small items. My biggest purchase there was a foam sleeping pad. It cost about sixty bucks, but it’s only about two inches thick and is easy to roll up and move. And man, is it comfortable.

So… I have a sleeping pad on the floor in one corner, my computer and books in another, a kitchen to cook in, and a bathroom and shower. Pretty much all I need, though another chair or two and a table to eat at would be good. I’ve never cared much for couches — they’re a pain in the ass to move around, and besides… I already have a place to sleep.

It’s a one bedroom apartment, and my daughter of course claimed that as her own. She loves to decorate and try out new things, and it gives her a blank canvas to experiment with. Pretty cool…

This photo goes back almost a year already, and is a detail from the same tree as my ‘eucalyptus trunk’ photo. Eucalyptus bark may look smooth and textureless at first glance, but there are some amazing patterns and abstract designs in it. Fascinating…

If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.

Robert Capa

That’s probably one of the more famous quotes attributed to Robert Capa. Moving in on your subject, either physically or with a longer lens is certainly good advice in many cases. It’s something I practice more often than not. But maybe Capa was also implying a different kind of closeness.

Maybe he was hinting at an emotional closeness… a greater degree of intimacy… getting to know your subject matter. It’s no secret that the better you know your subject, whether it be person place or thing, the more depth and understanding you can convey with your work. You can dig beneath the surface, and explore facets of your subject that simply aren’t apparent at a quick glance.

Cameras are so prevalent these days, so compact and simple to use, so inexpensive that most anyone can buy one and call himself or herself a photographer. Much of the photography made is of the ‘drive by’ variety — a scratching of the surface. Sometimes it’s very well done, but often it’s lacking any real depth, and it’s often imitative. There’s no understanding of the subject there. I know I’m often as guilty of that as the next person.

To take the time to get closer, to develop an intimate connection with your subject, to dig beneath the surface can result in a richer experience both for you the photographer and the viewer.

Ah yes, these Saturday mornings at my computer, coffee cup in hand, ideas rolling around in my head… you have no idea how much I’ve missed this.

Life can be a strange, crazy, unpredictable thing. We tend to look at it as a linear thing –  grow up, go to school, work, retire, die. Straight line, beginning to end. We compartmentalize. Different aspects of our life go into different boxes — personal life, work life, spiritual life, political views, art if we practice one at all. All neatly packaged and lined up like products on a shelf. But life isn’t like that. It bends… it curves… it loops back on itself. It’s not a straight line, it’s more like the infinity sign.

After the past months I’ve been doing some rethinking about art and photography. Maybe clarifying is a better word. For several years I’ve kept my art and my activism separate. I’ll likely continue to do so, though there is obviously some overlap.

As much as I dislike labels and boxes, and I know full well that things aren’t this cut and dried, for what I’m thinking about here I’ll divide serious photography into two camps. There’s the ‘art for art’s sake’ approach, and there’s the ‘cameras for a cause’ approach.  Sometimes they can be one and the same… oftentimes not.

I’ve drifted toward the ‘art for art’s sake’ side over the years. My work has become more personal, more introspective, more abstract. It fits with the idea of equivalents that Stieglitz and Minor White among others have spoken about. It’s more inner directed, like visual music, a realm where words don’t apply, where the camera is the instrument. It really doesn’t fit in with any cause, but it’s the way I’ve come to work.

At the same time, I’m deeply concerned about things I’ve seen happening in our world, and continue to see. The rape and pillage of our wild earth, the accumulation of obscene wealth at the top of our society and the resulting poverty and destitution at the bottom. I’ve seen both, some of it up close and personal. I feel compelled to document it, to do what I can to change it as little as that may be. I don’t know how much we can effect change with our work, or if we can even do it at all, but I do know this — if we do nothing nothing will change. The ‘cameras for a cause’ approach is more agenda driven and has a long and proud tradition. It’s using the camera as a tool.

They’re two different mindsets. Some can combine the two approaches, but I’ve always had great difficulty doing that. But now that I’m trying to carve out a life for myself with my camera and computer I need to learn to wear both hats, that of artist and that of activist. Both are valid… both are important…both are necessary. As far as I know there’s no rule against doing both. If there is I’ll break it.

Thoughts?

My true program is summed up in one word: life. I expect to photograph anything suggested by that word which appeals to me.  –  Edward Weston

I started these bits and pieces posts, which are mostly my quick takes on quotes about photography, some time back, but have been a bit remiss in keeping up. This is a good time to remedy that and get back with the program.

This one by Edward Weston appeals to me more and more as the years go by. My photography isn’t about photography. It isn’t about cameras… it isn’t about subject matter… it isn’t about definitions or categories or fitting into certain boxes labeled ‘landscape photography’ or ‘street photography’ or ‘documentary photography’ or ‘abstract photography’ or any other genre. It’s about life.

There are countless definitions of art. Some are quite profound, others are little more than exercises in pomposity. I can sum up mine quite simply. My work is my attempt to translate my life into visual form.

How about yours?