Metamorphosis & Finding oneself

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So I purchased another book from the great folks at Craft & Vision titled “Close to Home” which really just reinforced all the things I’ve been thinking about as of late. To give you a brief synopsis of Close to Home I’ll allude to one of the quotes within the book which says:

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

 

– Elliot Erwitt

If you’re looking for some inspiration and you’ve been thinking about your photography an in depth way, then this book will certainly be an eye opener literally.

Continuing on

My photography has taken a turn into a new unchartered territory. Have you stopped for moment and really thought about what you really need to make pictures. Not necessarily having the greatest, latest toys, or the ultimate lens which would catapult you into that new frontier. No, instead focusing on the quintessential tools in your creative process. Well, I can tell you that I have and I’ve arrived at some some conclusions.

Conclusions

• I feel comfortable exploring new creative outlets.
• I know the gear that will help me create my vision.
• I’ve refined my vision and I’m well on the way into new roads.
• I now have enough knowledge to create the images that I want.

These are just some of the realizations that have surfaced by a recent turn of events and in that process I almost went against my nature – compact cameras. You see the thing is, that once you recognize what you are its easier to go out and get it, not in a monetary sort of way but in an existential way.

 

 

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” — Diane Arbus

 

My way is the way of a compact and the small format camera not the dslr. If you’ve shot with a professional compact like the Ricoh GRD’s and the Lumix LX series(to name just two of my favorites) then you know and have experience the creative flow and how that creativity is all around you. Well, the good news is that it’s also the same if you don’t have such devices or any other photographic devices for that manner. What really counts is having that vision and training that eye to see things that normally go unseen and that’s excatly what I’m talking about when I refer to quotidian photography.

 

So to conclude this week’s narrative, I find it rather interesting that this realization came to me at this precise time. My only recommendation for those of you out there, that perhaps are looking or trying to find yourself in relation to your photography is too keep searching, keep asking yourself pertinent questions. Put a moratorium to any gear purchases(unless you’ve defined your vision and goals already) and really think deeply as to the images you want to create and the emotions you’d like to transmit with your photography.