9/23/2005
Paris Shop, 1995
I put 1995 down for any date that I can't remember (many). Ten years ago. Yeah, that seems about right. And next year, for anything I can't remember - 1996. It is possible to take the trouble and write your life's journey and then go through ten thousand negatives and order them by date. Maybe some photographer does that - but that's like Felix Unger territory.
Happy Birthday
My feet are still half-planted in the current age - since output is digital - but it's not anything to worry about while you are out and about in the Big "digital-consumed" Apple.
Non-digital internal workflow changes as your concentration takes a direct route to - gasp - your own imagination. (This can be good or bad depending on functioning of that realm). But your internal workflow changes. Definitely.
Where's the preview button? It's been moved into your brain; maybe your soul. Click and you may be haunted for days in your dreams. There's no button to turn the cranial preview screen off. No timing mechanism. It lingers as long as it wants to.
But wait - wait - can moving the preview device to your imagination get you better pictures? I can assure you with complete certainty that I don't know. The problem is in the definition of "a better picture." You and I are just a bit too close to know things like that about our own images. We know that we evaluate - we try hard - but some psychological distance between the desire for "a winner" and the image must pass first. Time helps. Speeding up the process - counter productive.
But with film - it is always a surprise to some extent. It is. I don't care how carefully you pre-visualized it - the results are never the same. Maybe this is more true in black and white photography where you are always dealing with an abstraction. You get tuned in to it - but you will always find some surprise.
I am always surprised by what I see in the negative - sometimes for the good. Sometimes for the bad. But you know what - that is what I enjoy most! The surprise. What a weird way to go about things. You do everything you can to control what is going to be on film - only to find that everyday is a birthday. Every day - a new "wrapped" present awaits you. Something you've stolen from the world and wrapped yourself - and yet you don't know what's in the box. This is the best part.
Happy birthday.
Non-digital internal workflow changes as your concentration takes a direct route to - gasp - your own imagination. (This can be good or bad depending on functioning of that realm). But your internal workflow changes. Definitely.
Where's the preview button? It's been moved into your brain; maybe your soul. Click and you may be haunted for days in your dreams. There's no button to turn the cranial preview screen off. No timing mechanism. It lingers as long as it wants to.
But wait - wait - can moving the preview device to your imagination get you better pictures? I can assure you with complete certainty that I don't know. The problem is in the definition of "a better picture." You and I are just a bit too close to know things like that about our own images. We know that we evaluate - we try hard - but some psychological distance between the desire for "a winner" and the image must pass first. Time helps. Speeding up the process - counter productive.
But with film - it is always a surprise to some extent. It is. I don't care how carefully you pre-visualized it - the results are never the same. Maybe this is more true in black and white photography where you are always dealing with an abstraction. You get tuned in to it - but you will always find some surprise.
I am always surprised by what I see in the negative - sometimes for the good. Sometimes for the bad. But you know what - that is what I enjoy most! The surprise. What a weird way to go about things. You do everything you can to control what is going to be on film - only to find that everyday is a birthday. Every day - a new "wrapped" present awaits you. Something you've stolen from the world and wrapped yourself - and yet you don't know what's in the box. This is the best part.
Happy birthday.
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