You don't seem to be short on motivation; that's my single biggest problem these days, that and boredom with the local scene. And time: I seem to do nothing, but it takes all morning to do it. Then I go eat and after that it's either too hot (now, at last!) or I get sidetracked by the computer.
I need a holiday from myself.
Rob C
I couldn't have written it better myself. I have wandered far - I don't drive - in the nearly ten years that I have been in photography and seeing something different is difficult. Maybe a new pair of eyes?
Stamper, Rob, myself (I'm also answering to myself here) etc...
I think that we do not need a new pair of eyes, but we do need a new movie that these eyes are watching.
In other words, we need a physical move. Like what Michael is actually doing.
What do you feel when you hear about Michael's move? You feel that is going to boost his life in a good way, don't you? Well,
that is my feeling. He is moving the stagnated soup, he is offering himself another panorama. No doubt that the pics will
increased and the inner sensation will be feeded by all these new stimulations.
There is nothing more killing that staying in the same place and watching every single day the same movie.
First, you think that it's you and make the resolution to extract something interesting when there is nothing stimulating any more.
And that is when we start these abstract experiments, these macro shots of available objects.
A srewdriver suddenly becomes a pretext of beauty. A dead car engine under the morning sun. Wired textures.
Seeing the beauty at the street corner is indeed a great and frustrating exercice.
Great because it just forces to enhance the perception, being able to find beauty in every single moment, included the most difficult ones.
And it is true that there is, that sometimes we do not see enough where the photography is, and it might be just there.
Frustrating because every attempt, succeded or not, is filling the glass. There is a time when whatever water you put into the glass it just can
be filled any more. Why? because the glass has a specific volume. It can handle a certain quantity. So whatever the efforts are, the capacity is
what is. There is no other solution than taking another empty glass or changing it. That is the sense of the move.
Many great artists have always made physical moves when things where stagnating. The danger is just to think that one's vision is not
good enough when the real thing that should be done is just a physical move.
Let allow myself to introduce a crazy idea. What you could do, Rob and Stamper, is make an exange. Rob goes to Glasgow and Stamper goes to the Island for awhile. That sounds crazy isn't it? but it actually would operate a great move and inspiration on both.
Yes, your Scotish town has changed, but you will walk in those streets with the camera, something powerfull will happen. Maybe your very best pictures are there, waiting for you.
We should not treat themselves bad, thinking that we can not see the magic any more. What we need IMO is just a move.
Artists do that constantly, animals do that constantly. And even Mother nature does not like stagnation. Everything is constantly moving.
If we stay still for too long, IMO, we are just going against the natural law. And the price to pay at this toll is pretty high.
Let's move!
Cheers.