Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: Ivo_B on July 28, 2018, 08:46:07 am
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Who didn't suffer a Photographers block.....
I did years ago. To get out of it I started to make little photo stories, photo riddles, illustrations of poems or songs, etc.
This example was to illustrate a poem of the Dutch poet Lucebert. The intent was to print on 2x2 meter and a total of 20 diptych (It was a project with 20 photographers, sadly, some of them bailed out because they thought they where the photographer of the century and claimt idiot money for the work... Result: neck shot for the project)
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When I get blocked, it's like a sink: nothing goes out until the nice men from the town come along with their bottle of acid to burn away the fat/gunge downstream. Then I pay them, and everything and everybody goes away, and peace returns.
As with your solution - self-created stories - the true saviour is indeed action, which was why pro life was much easier to handle from the productivity angle: somebody else came up with the needs and you provided the satisfactions (usually, but not always). Inertia, bloody inertia.
It's easy to think in terms of inspiration - lack of - as being the problem, and to a large extent that's also true for pro life, because travel was always sure to generate new ideas and mental perspectives. That admitted, local can also be productive, but being productive in a set direction does not always mean it interests you after a while. As mentioned before, I know I could go out every day and come back with something from the local town, but having done that a lot, I feel no desire to do it again right now.
Some women seem capable of going shopping, and resolving almost everything in an afternoon. Lucky those like that. I went shopping for a pair of Levi's some weeks ago, paid through the nose for them (before Trumpian VAT) and, so far, have never worn them. Shopping wouldn't work for me, even if I were a woman; probably depress me even more, and I suspect that blocks are a part of, or even cause of depression on some levels.
I guess it's another of those things that we pretend that time will cure. I think it takes something else other than time.
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Block is like that troublesome zit and the same rules apply, don’t focus on it, don’t stress about it and don’t pick at it.
Really, a life full of diverse interests, influences and inspirations will go a long way to preventing that outbreak.
Monomania leads to obsession, fixation, neurosis and ultimately of course, constipation, artistic or otherwise.
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Block is like that troublesome zit and the same rules apply, don’t focus on it, don’t stress about it and don’t pick at it.
Really, a life full of diverse interests, influences and inspirations will go a long way to preventing that outbreak.
Monomania leads to obsession, fixation, neurosis and ultimately of course, constipation, artistic or otherwise.
Yep, even to the extent of slicing off bits of the ear! Or was it the absinthe wot dunnit?
;-)
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Go to the art museum and look at something in a different media.
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Go to the art museum and look at something in a different media.
And read a lot!
Peter
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Go to the art museum and look at something in a different media.
Yes, even look at television documentaries or plays, and note the way motion image people work; there's stuff you can adapt to stills that opens both your eyes and turns on your own creative juices.
Recently, for me, the required kick in the pants was the title sequence in Braquo, a French cop drama series.
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For anyone with artistic aspirations, I believe that a way out of the Bog of the Block lies in something that a few photographers already do: indulge in a little Abstract Impressionism.
Have a look at Keith's Found Paintings gallery and you will see that there are no limits to the opportunities before you: the limitations that you experience are in your own eyes and imagination.
The beauty of it from the shooting aspect is that you can do this type of picture without having to pay models, go to the ends of the Earth or otherwise make yourself bankrupt. (I purposely exclude printing from that remark!) It is also a helluva lot of pleasure; you feel quite alive when you suddenly discover that shot waiting there for you; it's just like a new best friend!
Where does the frustration of block come from in the first place? I think it cones from suffering from the delusion that there had to be a specific objective before a photograph is possible. Instead, it makes sense to reverse the procedure and let happenstance sit in the driving seat for a change. Think of it as a shifting of the gears. Of course, if you drive an auto box, you're stuffed, and I probably serves you right, you lazy sod!
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I put a macro lens on my camera and crawl around the garden shooting bugs and flowers and stuff. I have tried everything over the years even throwing money at the problem but I hate macro photography. I don’t like the process and I don’t like the results.I have a blind spot for this aspect of photography. I sometimes see technical excellence but I have never in my life seen a macro photo I would put on my wall. I apologize if that offends someone, I realize it’s my issue but there you have it.
The point to all this is after the dreadful experience of shooting macro I always feel pleased to stand up and go do some photography that pleases me. If I am going away on a big trip you will always find me crawling around chasing bugs in my garden a few days before. If you look at my LR catalogue you will always find hundreds of rubbish photos of bees just before a creative spurt.
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I put a macro lens on my camera and crawl around the garden shooting bugs and flowers and stuff. I have tried everything over the years even throwing money at the problem but I hate macro photography. I don’t like the process and I don’t like the results.I have a blind spot for this aspect of photography. I sometimes see technical excellence but I have never in my life seen a macro photo I would put on my wall. I apologize if that offends someone, I realize it’s my issue but there you have it.
The point to all this is after the dreadful experience of shooting macro I always feel pleased to stand up and go do some photography that pleases me. If I am going away on a big trip you will always find me crawling around chasing bugs in my garden a few days before. If you look at my LR catalogue you will always find hundreds of rubbish photos of bees just before a creative spurt.
Beware bees about to have a creative spurt!
:-)
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427 readers and less than ten contributions.
I guess everybody else never gets blocked.
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I put a macro lens on my camera and crawl around the garden shooting bugs and flowers and stuff.
I also use my macro (a 90mm equivalent) when trying to row out of the photographic doldrums. Using a single prime narrows my focus. Using a portrait-length lens/perspective draws me in to details that might go unseen with a wider lens. The macro capability means that I don't have to worry about how small that detail might get. It's not so much adopting/imposing restrictions, as it is temporarily working with a simplified viewpoint.
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427 readers and less than ten contributions.
I guess everybody else never gets blocked.
There have been moments recently when I've wondered about removing the last word from the thread title and asking for imaginative suggestions.
Jeremy
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I also use my macro (a 90mm equivalent) when trying to row out of the photographic doldrums. Using a single prime narrows my focus. Using a portrait-length lens/perspective draws me in to details that might go unseen with a wider lens. The macro capability means that I don't have to worry about how small that detail might get. It's not so much adopting/imposing restrictions, as it is temporarily working with a simplified viewpoint.
I also use a 90mm macro these days. Was a 100mm macro in my Canon day’s.
I think you have stated very accurately the process of as you say rowing out of the doldrums.
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As reinforcement to you bug hunters—at first I laughed—Tchaikovsky had insights into inspiration and the creative process.
His best-known quotes:
“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”
“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”
https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/07/24/tchaikovsky-on-work-ethic-vs-inspiration/
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A lot of pro photographers say that inspiration is for amateurs. We shoot anyway, and if we don’t deliver we don’t eat.
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As reinforcement to you bug hunters—at first I laughed—Tchaikovsky had insights into inspiration and the creative process.
His best-known quotes:
“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”
“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”
https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/07/24/tchaikovsky-on-work-ethic-vs-inspiration/
Following the links to other places, I came across something that I've tried to explain to my wife without success (she being of a different temperament). To paraphrase: "a low dose of melancholy can enhance the creative process".
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There have been moments recently when I've wondered about removing the last word from the thread title and asking for imaginative suggestions.
Jeremy
;D
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A lot of pro photographers say that inspiration is for amateurs. We shoot anyway, and if we don’t deliver we don’t eat.
To requote Donovan: the greatest problem facing the amateur is finding a reason to take a photograph.
As retired pro, I fully concur. It gets increasingly difficult to convince oneself that it is not simply a horrendous waste of time, that one is not just the Duracell bunny running on auto.
Rob
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There have been moments recently when I've wondered about removing the last word from the thread title and asking for imaginative suggestions.
Jeremy
No malice aforethought, but suicide springs instantly to mind!
:-)