by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education
Sometimes I head off on a tangent tapping into quotes from painters, writers, poets, coaches and others. Today let’s get back to a quote from a photographer. Former Magnum Photographer Wayne Miller documented war, black families and was a Life Magazine photographer among his other photographic endeavors.
A Time Magazine memorial article when 94 year old Miller passed away in 2013 started this way, “To photograph mankind and explain man to man — that was how legendary photographer Wayne Miller described his decades-long drive to document the myriad subjects gracing his work.”
Here’s the Photo Art Quote from Wayne that caught my attention.
“I think good dreaming is what leads to good photographs.” Wayne Miller
Simple ten word thoughts like these lead me to do some searching to find a way to make my images stronger and a bit different from those that have created before me. I proudly say that i stand on the shoulders of those photographers that have come before me. Without them photography would not be what it is today. When you take strong ideas and then build upon them you come up with stronger images.
What is dreaming? According to Wikipedia, “Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur usually involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.” An idea to capitalize on your dreams is to work to retain them after the fact is to have a notebook and pen or recorder next to your bed. If you don’t jot down the ideas that come to you in dreams within a few moments of wakening they go out and become part of the ether again.
To my mind photographic dreaming is a culmination of all the information you place in front of your eyes. Movies, books, photographs, impressions from your travels and added to that your imagination mixing all of these elements together. This can also be done while you are awake to have more control. Give yourself permission to day-dream. I know it was probably knocked out of you at an early age with parents and teachers telling you to, “Stop woolgathering!” “Pay attention!” “Day-dreaming is a waste of time…” Now you don’t want to do it all the time, but you do want to let your mind wander and play. Playing is one of the best ways to learn and develop new ideas and concepts.
What do you dream about? Have you found ways to incorporate your dreams into your photography?
Yours in Creative Dreaming, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Do photographers and artists tend to be a bit picky?
You betcha!!
Some, not picky enough.
Most of us are both!
“I guess I’ve shot about 40,000 negatives and of these I have about 800 pictures that I like.” Harry Callahan
Harry Callahan was a self taught photographer who felt he made few solid images. This from Wikipedia, “His technical photographic method was to go out almost every morning, walk through the city he lived in and take numerous pictures. He then spent almost every afternoon making proof prints of that day’s best negatives. Yet, for all his photographic activity, Callahan, at his own estimation, produced no more than half a dozen final images a year.”
We take an awful lot of images every year but do we craft any? We also tend to want to have most of our images be considered very good images but we don’t necessarily take the time to work on creating a really strong piece? I just ask these questions to give you (and I) food for thought.
On the other hand I posit we do create some strong images but don’t think we do because we compare our complete body of work, including our tossers to another photographer’s fully finished work where we only see the finals not the work that went into them.
It is a two edged sword. We need to be confident and not overly critical in the work we produce, but we also need to edit ruthlessly. A conundrum and a fine line to walk if you want to be known as a great photographer.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Hoping this photo/art quote makes sense because it is being written at 2 AM…. (had coffee too late and can’t sleep)
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography creativity, photography education, success education
In seeking inspiration I will often head out of the photography realm and today is no different. Marcel Proust was a French writer of novels and essays. His quote that I share today has a lot to do with observation. And if we are to become excellent photographers we have to do more than just see what is around us. We need to be aware of possibilities that live around us all the time.
Many times when we travel we will get more creative because we are being exposed to new stimuli. What will help us be more effective image makers is being able to see the new among the apparent mundane around us all the time…
“The journey of self discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust
Proust’s quote obviously doesn’t deal with image making but I feel the sentiment that he expresses for self discovery can be applied to our vision.
Remember, there is looking.
There is seeing.
And, then there is vision.
Go deeper.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Wanna be a better photographer?
Don’t show people your less than stellar images.
Here’s the quote from John Sexton that inspires today’s photo/art quote…
“A photographer needs to be a good editor of negatives and prints! In fact, most of the prints I make are for my eyes only, and they are no good. I find the single most valuable tool in the darkroom is my trash can – that’s where most of my prints end up.” John Sexton
I agree with this quote 100%! in places where you are trying to entice clients, or buyers of art to your work. The exception is in an instructional situation where you are looking for feedback. You can’t learn if you are not willing to make mistakes and learn from them. And many times there are mistakes to be made. Lord knows, I’ve made them and continue to do so. Where the problem is when you step out of the educational realm and share almost every thing you shoot with the world. For example, blog posts sharing a session with 20 images trying to show everything rather than 1-2 fabulous images from that shoot. Or web sites that have just too many examples of what you are trying to share with people. Volume does not necessarily equate with quality. As my friend Skip Cohen always coaches, “If an image is not an image that would get you a job all by itself it shouldn’t be on the web page.” OK that was loosely quoted but you get the idea! (check his web site for lots of marketing and photography ideas!)
Remember I said I still make mistakes??
Time for me to tear apart my commercial web site apart and start tossing older and not the best images I have to offer.
How about you?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – John Sexton is a wonderful Black & White image maker. If you’d like to see 17 more quotes by John Sexton curated by John Paul Caponigro look here
by successfulbob | art books, fine art photography, photography - art quote, photography books, photography education
What are your goals when you make a photograph?
I came across this quote from Robert Farber (see his work here) and thought it was worth a share and some thinking on this Sunday morning.
“I try to create emotion through a mood, an appreciation for what’s there – something people walk by every day and don’t see.” Robert Farber
I don’t now that I have a concise thought like this about my photography.
I don’t have much more to say so I’ll end on this note and ask for your thoughts while I spend time thinking about my goals in creating images.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Here’s a link to some of Farber’s books, many of them quite reasonable, if you want to expand your photo library.
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education, success education
W. Clement Stone added to the quote by Napoleon Hill to add in the information that essentially is Newton’s Law of Motion, and I believe, effects each of us every day. If we are not aware of the forces of our mind and nature we suffer the consequences.
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. That’s why many fail – they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia… They don’t begin.” W. Clement Stone (Napoleon Hill)
After Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich he teamed up with W. Clement Stone to write Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude and added these words to the well known phrase, “That’s why many fail – they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia… They don’t begin.”
And there is the crux of the problem leading to success. They don’t get started. If you have an idea, act upon it. Get going. Apply Newton’s Law in Physics. Newton’s first law of motion is, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” We human beings are the same way. Once we start on a project it is fairly easy to keep going. Getting started can be the hard part, excuses abound.
Get in motion.
If you have trouble with that get Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and read a chapter a night. Put the book up for a month and then read a chapter a night with a highlighter and note the passages that will help you. Put the book up for a month. Repeat with a different colored highlighter passages you didn’t note before but for which you are now ready. Now the book is ready to be reviewed on a regular basis and can be gone through in a very short period of time. We need reminders when we get off track and I’ve found this to be very handy (matter of fact, it’s time to break out my well worn copy…where did I put that??)
You ask, “Bob what does all this have to do with photography??” Personal photography projects are one of the best ways to refresh you. To change your business in the direction you want to go. But we often don’t get started on them because we “don’t have time.” I disagree and I think you’ll find the motivation you need following some of the ideas above.
Good luck!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
