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<p>I realized that in my personal experience doubt is an important factor for learning and understanding. Every time I progress to a higher level of understanding, there it comes doubt that brings me back to the starting point. However, every time I go back to the starting point, I do it with a load of experience I didn't have before and that allows me to have a bigger picture in front of my eyes.<br>

Do you ever doubt? And how does doubt affect your photography?</p>

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<p>In making photographs, I experience doubt as the tension between old habits and creativity, between ingrained opinions and openness.</p>

<p>Confidence in and commitment to my work is essential. That means: taking an idea that I have and running with it; realizing a visualization without being tentative and without second-guessing myself; having the courage to approach my subjects candidly and not shy away from discomfort and even conflict; risking a bad result in order to advance my vision; looking at colors not for their attractiveness but rather for their variety of expressions from those that soothe to those that put me on edge; using composition, focus, contrast, and texture differently depending on the specific situation rather than establishing a comfort zone of "what works" in more general terms; putting praise from others in its place and not giving it too much power.</p>

<p>Being bound by my ego or too strong-willed goes beyond confidence and gets dangerous for me (not that I don't engage in it sometimes!). These allow me to dwell in my own opinions rather than trying to achieve new insights. This is where doubt can be healthy. Allowing my own taste too strong a sway over me forces me to specialize rather than empathize and develop. I prefer to embrace what I "like" while doubting its validity or universality and challenging it and seeking new companions for it. I work hard to appreciate and be interested in what I don't like. Comfort can give me significant pause when I achieve a goal and also mark a new beginning, and a little doubt at those apexes can allow me to wander or escape from that more placid or even static zone. Doubt can provide a dynamic . . . movement. When I achieve a fluidity with an approach to my subjects or a style of post-processing I've been working on, I look for a thorn, a nudge, some question or desire gnawing at me or unfulfilled, a quirk, a doubt. That's the direction in which I turn. I recognize that much of this is easy to say in the abstract and more difficult to accomplish when push comes to shove.</p>

<p>Being overcome by doubt can be a drag. Seeking, accepting, and harnessing it is exhilarating.</p>

We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<p>I doubt all the time. Not because I don't know or can't be right, but because it's a silly assumption to think you do or are. Doubt makes questions, questions makes understanding. Without doubts, in my view there is no way to progress to higher levels of understanding. It's the key to it all.<br>

It is, as Fred briefly touched, a bit a two-edged sword. Doubt can become too much, and have the exact opposite effect. I think it's more a sign of being insecure or not at ease, rather than the doubts being wrong. It does, however, happen and it really kills creativity completely. Either you become indecisive, or lethargic ("<em>I doubt whether I should do any of this</em>").</p>

<p>For my photography, I have various doubts playing a role. I don't regard what I do as very exiting or special work, and I'm very aware of the road left to travel. This doubt alone keeps me moving. I could be ahppy shooting landscapes (which I feel I have a reasonable grasp on), but it would not move me into anything new. I doubt whether I can learnt the other styles... But also, I doubt the urge or need I have to be special (it is a hobby, and I am not at all looking beyond that, not commercially, not as displayable art). Maybe, sometimes tourist snapshots are just fine enough. And sometimes not. Curiosity to tickle the interest, and after a while, the doubts may make me try it.<br>

I doubt the ways I try to learn, the way I compose, frame, the speed at which I work, the amount of care I take in actually taking the picture, the way I use my tools and especially at the moment doubt whether I should get even more tools (the least of the worries, obviously). ;-)<br>

When I view back photos, I doubt very often whether I succeeded to capture what I envisioned. Sometimes it makes me go back and try again, if possible. More often, it leaves me with a clue how to try it next time. Those doubts, I cherish, since they learnt me quite a fair bit and I believe they made me (and are making me) a more aware and prepared photographer.</p>

<p>And as example, where doubts serve little use. At the moment, my photography is a bit not happening. I sense no development, I produce little exciting, and I doubt where to go from here. Try new things, try dive in deeper in what I was trying? Or just wait a little (the weather the coming months should be more inviting), and see what flows back to me? It's an annoying doubt, since it leads me nowhere. A dog, chasing its own tail.</p>

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<p>Maybe when I'm just being narcissistic about my images that aren't really that good, I need the balance of honest doubt to bring me back to a more realistic assessment. On the other hand, it can defeat a person who maybe needs some encouragement. When I tell trusted people about my doubts in either case, they can help me see my way through doubt to better and more satisfying photos.</p>
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<p>Yesterday I put a polarizer and very expensive 25A red filter on the bed of my field camera. I had doubts about doing it at the time. Minutes later, I rotated the tripod head for a vertical shot, and the filters fell on the ground, breaking the red one. I knew I shouldn't have done that in the first place. And now I have a $150 reminder that I should note my doubts a bit more.</p>

<p>But in the larger scheme of your question. I don't have doubts about what I am doing. I do review my work, my style, and my product continually and modify what I'm doing. However, after re-reading AA's "The Negative" and "The Print" (probably the 10th time since I bought them in the 80's)—the first time I've touched them in at least 10 years, virtually every paragraph yielded vast amounts of information that I never understood before now. Maybe doubt isn't such a bad thing.</p>

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<p> Yes, Antonio, I experience doubts in life. While photographing, I almost never experience doubts. it is an insatiable curiosity that propels most of my questioning, yet doubts arise when editing (specially when someone whose opinion you trust fishes a reject out and pronounces it a keeper) and specially in post-processing, where I'll agonize over several variants.</p>
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<p><strong>Antonio</strong>,<br>

very interesting question, since recent discussions here have an impact on <em>doubt</em>.</p>

<p><em>Doubt </em>is part of my life, I love <em>doubt</em>. It's an attitude of mine to reflect on what has been going on and how it relates to my overall value framework. Somebody some years ago told me that I practice "<em>constructive doubt</em>". Gathering opinions, questioning, and then making up my mind.</p>

<p>Without <em>doubt </em>I don't learn. But this does not mean that <em>doubt </em>does not develop. New experiences are made, new relations are built, some experiences are consolidated and are not questioned, but new <em>doubts </em>come up.</p>

<p>I would say that "<em>my doubt</em>" develops along a spiral. The "experience building" is consolidated, there's no constant questioning of the roots. But new acts, experiences, effects, outputs are questioned and evaluated.</p>

<p>In many cases I need "the others": different points of view, critics, downturns by people I value, and who help me becoming detached from my work.</p>

<p>In the end I experience that I (but probably most human beings) "fall in love" with what they conceive and produce. And falling in love impedes criticism and voids doubt.</p>

 

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<p>Antonio, doubt is a constant "chaperone" in my creative life. Sometimes intervening in my work and sometimes just present behind the scene.... I'm not angry , as I think that this "chaperone" helps me to develop my work. I know that I have learned a lot,and my knowledge is getting better with every day that passes, but I always think that it is good but can be better still. I wrote it before and I repeat, the day we shall seat on the "Bay wreath", it will be better to leave our camera ( or any other tool we create with) in the closet, as it is the day we shall end widening the levels of our creative forces. At least about this point ,I don't have any doubts.....</p>
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<p>Everday doubts are fine; the sorting of signal from noise in/while making pictures. That's just the flip side of curiousity for me and is therefore not only okay, it's a major attraction.</p>

<p>What is harder to deal with (and what Antonio may mean by the "starting point") is when there is no signal; when I come to a full stop and don't have anything to choose from. Blank white page, the line goes dead and I have to conjure something from nothing. I don't like that at all. I can do it, but not without a lot of thrashing around and bumping into walls. At such times, the struggle is not in what to do or how to do it but whether or not to even (keep) try(ing).</p>

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<p>Antonio, the photographs you've posted do suggest (now that you've mentioned it) something about incompleteness or about something pending or previously completed but no longer evident. I like that.</p>

<p>For me there's no sign of "doubt" in those images ...they inspire my "curiosity." I treasure curiosity, am usually bored by "answers." "Answers" include beauty, with little else.</p>

<p>Doubt is another matter. I think occasional doubt is a virtue, total confidence is a disease. </p>

<p> Doing commercial and technical photography, I was properly and nearly-totally technically confident...no doubts. But I did sometimes have doubts about the aesthetics/design of a shot, after the fact, so would talk the art director/client into reshooting her/his image (at my expense...sometimes one pays for one's doubts).</p>

 

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<p>Well... It looks like all of you have experienced doubt and in the same way I have. <strong></strong><br>

<strong>John</strong>, total confidence is not only a disease: it is for people that have totally missed the point. I like to think that I am always incomplete and in development. The day I will feel completed it will be the day I die. I don't want to sound pompous but that's the truth. Your mind is very sharp and your senses don't deceive you. I don't seek answers, I seek questions; I am definitely interested in questions and doubt, as <strong>Luca</strong> was also saying, brings a whole deal of interesting questions.<br>

Doubt, for me, comes to play after I print an image. No doubt when I shoot, because I let instinct lead the way. So many times I look at an image and think: "Is it really worth a print?" Or: "Is it really worth existing or is it my mind that is overestimating this?" "Am I overestimating my ideas?" Or something like that... My doubts are about myself and who I am.<br>

<strong>Julie</strong>, when you experience that don't fight it, or it'll get worse; just do something else and wait patiently the ideas to come back.</p>

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<p>For example: the image below. I remember being much younger than I am now and being bothered by the fact that Italy's many beautiful ancient towns have been totally ruined by modern civilization. The purity of their identity has been destroyed by street signs, red lights, parking machines, telephone poles, ugly new constructions... It is almost impossible, as today, to take a picture of a town or just an area of it without being bothered by something that ruins its integrity and essence. Then I thought I was probably stupid thinking this, as progress cannot be stopped and it's a good thing anyway... It was only when I saw a documentary on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Paolo_Pasolini">Pier Paolo Pasolini</a>, lamenting exactly the same thing, that I realized that my doubt had no reason to exist... I took this photo to emphasize the idea of destruction of the essence and every time I look at it I love it but I also think it doesn't mean anything.</p>

<p><a href="../photo/11195922" target="_blank">click here</a></p>

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<p>Antonio, have you emphasized <em>"the idea of destruction of the essence"</em> or have you discovered and shown a new essence?</p>

<p>For me, essence is fluid and changing, not fixed and unyielding. If that's the case, then essence becomes much harder to destroy.</p>

We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<p>Doubt is the driving force that underlies judgement and decision making. An alternative is hardly noticeable when the selection you choose seems so perfectly crystal clear that it must be right. But what happens when the choices are not so definite? Perhaps you are required to take the point of view of one facing some uncertainty and yet also take a point of view of one who already has experienced the result of the choice not yet made? I like to clarify this dilemma by saying that "There is no such thing as an instant expert!"</p>

<p>Whether you have confidence in your ability and talent or not, you still must make on the spot decisions about your work to guide yourself to the result you hope to achieve. This is the stuff of doubt. Door no. 1 or Door no. 3? Over and over again.</p>

<p>I'm not talking about angst or a person's existential encounter with the absurd. For some there is some intellectual or psychological predisposition to feel insecure about oneself. This is a red herring that makes the problem much bigger that it should be for our ordinary lives. While I believe that it is true that to be found, one must first be lost, I think the role doubt plays in everyday photography is more on the order of a hundred pinpricks rather than the profound disorientation of realizing that you cannot find your way in a completely strange setting.</p>

<p>It's problem solving. Many people see this as more of an intellectual thing, but it is emotional as well. Having a problem to solve can engender feelings of anxiety, confusion and uncertainty: in a word, doubt. The more trouble it is to find a solution that works well for you the more likely these feelings will grow stronger. You can see how a person might tell you that overcoming difficult (professional) problems also means overcoming or coming to grips with yourself as well.</p>

<p>The photographer least likely to experience doubt about it is not a photographer at all. He is taking snapshots of his family in front of the Grand Canyon or "Old Faithful." No doubt here. If you can recognize Aunt Maude, it must be a good shot.</p>

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<p><strong>Fred</strong></p>

<p>I think it depends on what we are talking about. The essence of a lake, for example, could definitely be fluid and change as climate changes. However, the essence of a Beethoven's Symphony is the one that existed in Beethoven's mind and is immutable in time, and we musicians must be able to capture it, understand it and reproduce it for the public. Just as immutable is the essence of a building created in a specific period of time with a specific use. Everything else around can mutate but not the essence of Pisa's leaning tower. The mutation of the surroundings influences deeply the essence of the tower, that will slowly look "out of place". It's kind of sad but it's inevitable. I would like to be able to photograph and document this mutation process but it's so slow that a lifetime it's not enough.</p>

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<p><strong>Julie</strong>, we are human being and not creative machines, sometimes we arrive to a full stop. I think it helps us to deal with ourselves at this time, to think,to observe what we did till now, to rest . As long as your creative drives are present, it will come back., without alert....;-)) .I speak from my own experience, and from others as well.</p>

<p><strong>Anders</strong>, you will have some difficulties finding this kind, (with no doubts ;-))</p>

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<p>Antonio, for me, the essence of the Beethoven Symphony is to be found in every interpretation I hear, which varies widely.</p>

<p>You mentioned that you couldn't take a picture of an ancient building or city without being bothered by something modern that ruins it. For me, "essence" in this case is a tricky concept because photographing it would ruin it since there were no cameras in existence at the time they were built so a photograph true to the essence of the original city or building would be an impossibility.</p>

<p>Architecture and cities live. They don't exist in a moment in time when they became fixed and defined. Is the essence of a church in its blueprint? Is it in the mind of the architect? Did the essence of a church occur when it was completed, before anyone used it? Before it was "spoiled" by footprints? Did it occur when the first person walked through the door? When it first was filled with the voices of an entire congregation? Is the essence something visual, something to be seen? Is the essence so weak that a modern car in the picture can ruin it?</p>

<p>For me, an essence is a lifetime and includes all the messiness that goes along with a lifetime, whether of a building, a poem, a symphony, or a human being.</p>

<p>Beethoven did not write the symphony for it to stay as it was in his head. He wrote it for it to come alive by being played. It is dead to us only in his head and left sitting on the page.</p>

<p>Perhaps the essences of things are filled with doubt and change over time, not some sort of fixed certainty. Otherwise essences would be dead, just like the person without doubt. A building is built to last. It is built to weather storms and wind, time. There is no moment when it is complete and perfect. Its perfection depends on it being around awhile. Time and history are in its nature.</p>

<p>Need I say, I doubt I'm right about this! ;)))</p>

We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<blockquote>

<p>Do you ever doubt? And how does doubt affect your photography?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Antonio started by asking the double question whether we ever doubted and how it affects our photography. As the answer to the first is obvious, we all doubt because it is part of living, the second is the subject. <br /> However, I don't think that my doubts play a central role in my photography because:</p>

<p><strong>I do not doubt</strong> that my photos are modest and would be very surprised (medium level of doubt!) if anyone would contradict me. <br /> <strong>I do not doubt</strong> that I can improve my photography if I made more efforts and listened more to peers in the field.<br /> <strong>I do not doubt</strong> that tomorrow, or the day after, or some day in the future, if I live that long, I will tumble over fantastic scenes readymade for "my" type of photography.<br /> <strong>I do not doubt</strong> that most of my question on photography and art have been answered already and that it is only for me to find them and profit from them.<br /> <strong>I do not doubt</strong> that I also in the future will upgrade my cameras and lenses, despite declaring that I make a long pause.</p>

<p>If I one day I should believe that I have reached excellence in photography and that my photos are ready to be recognized for the masterpieces they obviously are - <strong>I do not doubt that I would start doubting </strong>also in the photographical field<strong>.</strong></p>

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<p>Antonio, the quest for "purity" and "essences" or "the one," can be rewarding, sometimes gets out of hand (eg: Taliban, Hitler/Mussolini, 9/11 mosque angst). <br>

<em>"....the essence of a Beethoven's Symphony is the one that existed in Beethoven's mind and is immutable in time, and we musicians must be able to capture it, understand it and reproduce it for the public." </em> --Antonio B.<br>

I've heard interviews in which performers and conductors say the essence of a composer's work is expressed (not "captured") only and in every <em>performance</em>... nobody knows what "existed in" a composer's mind. (we explored this here, recently, around Rosenberg Variations). Similarly, the notion that photographs "capture" "essences" is simply a Photo.net/digital camera industry urban legend. IMO :-)</p>

 

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