Passion and Photography

Robert picks up from APE, and it is really one great thread.

I have experienced a real rebirth of interest in art photography as of late. I spent so much time in the treacherous, but tedious realm of commercial, that I had lost the edge I had when I started. I played it safe, made the images the client wanted and would move on to the next image. I had the craft, and I had the vision, but I lacked the heart after nearly 4 decades.

I am getting that back now though. Really loving it.

Problem is the collaboration, stimulation really, that is lacking on the ubiquitous computer. Flickr doesn't help. Posting a photograph there gets some "Hey,that's cool," to "she's hottttt," to an occasional comment from someone who obviously has no idea what you are trying to do because they haven't seen your work in context. (In fairness, I do have some wonderful commentors who keep the discussion lively, pro or con.) But the heart isn't in it. Photo.net people are just too off the wall for me. The bitter anger that passes for passion on that forum is beyond my capacity for tolerating morons.

I would love to do what Robert recalls in his early days with group editing and the defending of an image, or even the creation of a defense of an image. To discuss photography is exciting, remarkable, extraordinary. Images are that powerful. But they are also easy to do, and the fact that everyone has the ability to take a picture - even with their phone - has made too many lazy.

Intellectual laziness leads to stunted growth, a loss of passion and no simple way to define anything. Weston's daybooks were so fascinating to me that I read them time and time again. Szarkowski's book should be required reading. No, you don't have to agree with him, but you need to hear what he has to say so you know whether or not you agree. That means taking the time to learn the craft, and the heart of photography.

Anyone can push a button. It takes no decision making skills. Just hold it up and 'snap.' But the heart of photography is what the snap is of. Why that image? Why that light? Why that angle? Why that time of day? Why that film. Why b&w, why not color? Why?

Every one of those and dozens more can be asked. Can they be answered by someone who doesn't have their heart in the game? Their passion? Passion is the reason for photography. It is the thing that drives people to spend a lifetime to capture a few minutes of their life in a still image. Passion is what makes us say in effect... "Hey, look and see what I saw." Passion is what makes so many keep doing it long after the money stops coming in or age slows the process. Passion.

robertwrightphoto.com: "So you really want old-timey, read the Daybooks of Edward Weston! He bitterly complains about the retouching he has to do to make the old rich hags happy with their portrait commissions, and gleefully talks about the drunken debauchery he gets into with Tina Modotti and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. You get the feeling he is a bit of louche and prig at the same time, he doesn’t seem too too concerned he left his wife and four children back in Glendale."