Being true to yourself
All well and good being true to yourself and your vision. But, man it's easy to find yourself pandering. And I mean pandering in a bad way! I find it really difficult to stop myself from making and posting images that don't have any context to what I want to create.
When catching up on the various communities, and seeing something that catches my eye, I tend to go to the persons 'home page' and have a wee gander. I feel that the majority of photographers out there try many different styles, too many different styles. And this dilutes that one good image. I am almost always disappointed at what I find. A great street image lost in a sea of macro flora shots. A great landscape lost amongst all the bad animal shots. A great macro shot hidden in an orgy of sunsets. We as photographers are a sad and insecure bunch sometimes. We drift from pillar to post without really being aware what is a good shot. At some point we should stop and ask ourselves, what do we really enjoy shooting? What is it that makes us happy to see on our photo stream? And when we have answered that, stick to it. Explore the genre. Enjoy the subject matter. Edward Weston shot peppers!! All kinds of peppers!! He went to market to look for interesting peppers, came home and became one of the best proponents of use of light this medium will know. He stuck to it when he needed to investigate.
I am not sure what would have happened if he were alive today, and had to deal with this crazy world of online sharing. But while photographing all those peppers, he became an innovative artist. He worked at refining his technique and vision. It took time to develop. And he endured all the self doubt because he had a vision and a goal. Well, the romantic in me would like to believe this. And he was sure that what he was doing was the correct thing for him to be doing. Now, of course I have no idea that it was like this, and maybe he was working alone in a cocoon. Or maybe he had lots of other on-going projects and influences. But I would like to believe that he was brave to tackle this subject and project and see it through' to it's logical conclusion. As I've said, I am not sure how he would have worked in this day and age.
But I am working in this day and age. To be brave and stick to my vision, I have to be stubborn. I have to believe that I desperately want to see where this road leads me. Everyday I have to say, yes. I have to yes to what I post. But I also have to be honest. I have to be brave and honest. 2 virtues in sad shortage these days. Or maybe I am just a bit of a megalomaniac. But maybe I have to be one. I have to say, yes! this is what I do, and I like it. And for now, this is who I am!
I am happy to have this opportunity to be this stubborn and be true to my vision. And be true to myself. Thanks all.
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Your writing us brave, Anton! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
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