‘The Light Is the Story’
“Bad light can rob even the most incredible scenes of their visual interest, while good light can transform the most mundane subjects into a thing of beauty.” – Cameron Whitman (via Twitter)
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Byproducts of Exploration
“For me, the pictures I make are the byproduct of my explorations, not an end in themselves.” – Stephen Shore
Your Own Voice
“Your favourite writers and works already exist. You can’t be them. But conversely, nobody else can tell stories in your voice. So do that.”
Close Proximity to Reality
“We can talk about the photographer as an author who – on the basis of facts and by means of a minimal shift in perception – creates in close proximity to reality.”
Thomas Weski, “Draft of a Presentation,” in William Eggleston’s Los Alamos.
Good Excuse
CJ Chilvers says he was wrong about landscape photography:
Landscape photography is healthy. You hike miles. You look at gorgeous things. It feels good. It makes others looking at the results feel good too. Few things create such positive results for all involved.
Amen. As always, photography can serve as the excuse to do something you already love.
How Learning Works
“How learning works: ‘you practice music scales so you can forget them when playing music.'” – Luke Wroblewski
Same goes for technique and photography, or color theory and design. Make the technical stuff muscle memory, then go out and do what you feel like doing.
(That’s The Neal Morse Band in Cleveland, Ohio. Great show, and great new double concept album.)
Art Requires You To Move On
“Making decisions about art based entirely on commerce is a recipe for regret.” – CJ Chilvers
Gateway to Art
“The gateway drug is not creating art, but experiencing art.” – Christoph Niemann in Abstract: The Art of Design
Indeed. I’m lucky, working at a museum, because I experience art every day. But even before this job, I made sure to visit museums and seek out good work.
Artists’ websites, photo books, small town galleries – there’s no excuse not to surround yourself with, and absorb, art. I’d argue, given everything else, that it makes you a better artist.
Work For Yourself
“Because they can’t publish you better than you can publish yourself.” – Seth Godin
