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“For the first several years one struggles with the technical challenges, making sure and steady progress ….But, eventually every photographer who sticks with it long enough arrives at a technical plateau where production of a technically good photograph is relatively easy. It is here that real photography starts and most photographers quit.” ~ Brooks Jensen
AS I AM CONSIDERING MY THOUGHTS AND FEELING, RE: blogging and this blog in particular, I have been contemplating the idea of what exactly is / has been my intent for doing this blog. The easy answer is that I simply wished to exhibit my work to the world. There is some truth to that answer but, digging a bit deeper, there is much more to it that that.
A few decades past, as I was moving away from commercial photography, my picture making activity gravitated to the making of pictures as Art rather than for commerce. While I had garnered some significant bona fides*, re: photography as Art, as is my wont, I was driven to explore the grand and messy world of photography as Art in more detail. Specifically, what exactly is it that makes a photograph a work of Art as opposed to being just a mere picture.
In the course of that exploration, I started a blog wherein I thought out loud, re: my ideas and ruminations on the subject of photography as Art, in hopes of encouraging input from others who read the blog. For quite a number of years, that hope was realized and there was plenty of lively conversation.
The net result of all that activity was there was no easy answer to the question of what makes a photograph be considered as Art. My take on it came down to the notion of, stop thinking / worrying about it, find my vision, get on with it, and let the chips fall where they may.
Re: It is here that real photography starts and most photographers quit - I never had much toil and struggle with the technical challenges of making a technically good picture. My picture making “challenge” derived from my intrinsic, preternatural drive to be an individual who did not “follow the crowd”. So, there was no way, from the moment I first picked up a camera, that I was going to make pictures that conformed to the prevailing idea of what makes a “good” picture.
FYI, to be very clear on that subject, I did not consciously adopt an attitude to be “different”. As I later came to realize, I just flat out see the world in a manner that differs from how others typically see it. Consequently, my “challenge” was to plunge ahead and do what came naturally, essentially ignoring any internal conflicts / doubts about being “different”. If I had given in to any doubts, it would have been at that point at which I most likely would have quit photography.
All of the above written, call it vanity if you must, but I like to think that all of my blathering on-which, BTW, is likely to continue-about the medium and its apparatus might just possibly help, or has helped, some followers of this blog to-paraphrasing Brook Jensen-let go of what they have been told is a good photograph and start photographing what they see.
*acceptance of work in prestigious, juried group exhibitions, a jurist for many exhibitions / competitions (such as the final round of The Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Competition), many solo exhibitions in art galleries / institutions, working with the author of the seminal book The New Color Photography, a stint as a photo critic for the New Art Examiner, et al.