Local inspiration?

[beeman458]

Just a thought, many notables are well known for their wanderings.

 

"Moonrise Over Hernandez", Ansel Adams

 

http://www.fada.com/view_image.html?image_no=3543

 

Lee Friedlander

 

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/F/friedlander/friedlander.html

 

Garry Winogrand

 

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/W/winogrand/winogrand.html

 

Lisette Model

 

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/M/model/model.html

 

Brassai, HCB, Minor White as the list is almost endlessly filled with notables who are well known for their photographic wanderings. :)

[billy_mabrey]

Clanck!...ooooffff....!

have i offended you in some way? You have made your point, i have a red welt from you badgering me over the head. :)

 

Yes yes, I have seen plenty of shots from wandering about. In fact, pretty much all I ever do when photographing is going out to wander camera in hand. That way of shooting helps to find ideas, and perhaps a lucky chance to photograph something will come up once and a while, (fish taking the hook so to speak). There is nothing WRONG with wandering. I was simply trying to suggest to the fellow, who seems hard pressed to fire up the creative juices in his local area, that there's an alternative to roaming about.

 

MAKING a photograph is not all in the shooting stage, obviously. It's an entire series of decision making which leads to a finished photograph or series of photographs. Ole Ansel happened upon that scene randomly while driving past, yes. But he methodicaly decided the filtering, composition, exposre, ect.... I would be almost certian that he printed it in several ways before he honed in on his vision, the photograph that he wanted to MAKE. There was a plan in place.

 

Paul here, he can create an assignment to serve as a guide. He can say, today I'm going to photograph bricks on the back of my house, or i'm going to eventualy print these images i make today incredibly large, or i'm going out at 4:17 am for some night photography, or i'm going to spit on something before i photograph it, or im going to capture place x today as opposed to place y becasue I was out of milk today and am going to have to stop by the grocery store even tho its raining. He could even build a robot, program it for 32 months and set it to go out and wander taking photographs for all that it matters. (....and thats another topic entirely)

 

Setting up a project simply gets one motivated to go, especialy when your local surroundings become quite mundane and boring and fail to provide any immediate inspiration (I was trapped on a college campus for a few years and know the feeling).

 

People paint for a hobby, sculpt for a hobby, draw for a hobby, and rarely if ever do they just wander about.....there is always a plan involved. Anything else is doodling.

[henry_lee4]

Hi Paul.

 

I had a look at your portfolio and noticed that the 'cross roads mall' series seems to indicate that you are interested in more artfully oriented photography. So I make the following comments in that spirit. [nice folder that one BTW - i really like it]

 

There are a lot of photographers that wander and happen upon images that are of interest. This is of course a valid art; the re-representation of the world around us in a way that makes the mundane meaningful [more or less successfully].

 

In my opinion however, and it is only an opinion of course, the best artists in photomedia are usually the ones that CREATE their vision. I personally love (and aspire to) art that goes beyond the realm of the found to present something that is nearly completely novel and breaks the boundaries of the everyday. I say 'nearly' because there is virtually always an element of familiarity in photograpy in the very nature of the process.

 

Some very good examples:

Created - http://raycook.com.au/

 

Created - http://www.mariandrew.com/

(check out the pre-1992 stuff in particular)

 

A mix - http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/18/Bill_Henson/

[Note that many of these images are more "created' than is initially obvious. For example, the girls that seem to float over city lights are actually set upon an elaborate set.]

 

Mostly found art - http://images.google.com.au/images?q=andreas+gursky&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

 

 

And I guess I'll end on some quotes that I ripped from a cool site:

http://www.badphotography.co.uk/home.html

 

'Each year, thousands of roll rolls of film are exposed on the same old subjects. Look at last year's holiday prints. What subjects do you see? Almost certainly there will be a view of the beach from your hotel room, and a view of your hotel room from the beach. Are you really satisfied with these photographs? Perhaps your family wants you to take these pictures each year, but once you have committed these subjects to film, open your eyes and start taking some real photographs.'

 

'...frankly we are getting tired of the modern con-man who tries to persuade us that his grainy, forced pictures are a 'means of communication' or something just as daft.'

[beeman458]

"Paul here, he can create an assignment to serve as a guide. He can say, today I'm going to photograph bricks on the back of my house, or i'm going to eventualy print these images i make today incredibly large, or i'm going out at 4:17 am for some..."

 

Yes, one can do that as a form of motivation. But that won't develop a photographic eye. Photographic eyes come from within.

 

"...especialy when your local surroundings become quite mundane and boring and fail to provide any immediate inspiration (I was trapped on a college campus for a few years and know the feeling)."

 

One should be able to be trapped in the confines of a room and continue to find new, exciting images. Yes, after years in a room you might run out of image making material but a whole college campus? Only a limited mind would run out of material on such a diverse plane. I still find things to photograph in my small yard after many, many years. Maybe it is I who has the limited mind and it is I who's easily entertained. :)

 

"People paint for a hobby, sculpt for a hobby, draw for a hobby, and rarely if ever do they just wander about.....there is always a plan involved. Anything else is doodling."

 

It's hard to wander with easel and brush in hand. Same for sculpting and drawing. Although drawing might be a bit easier but as to lacking plans and doodling. Again, the list of notable photographers who were "doodlers" is a long one.

 

Knowledge is key to continued creative processes. How well you understand the pursuit, will determine how consistent you're going be in the pursuit, not matter what the pursuit might be.

 

In the case of photography, understanding the process, thoroughly frees one's vision up so they're more easily able to go forth and photograph.

 

"How can I find inspiration and motivation to photograph my immediate surroundings which seem so boring and mundane to me?"

 

Better understand photographic history and what the notables had to say about their effort. Learn about lighting as photography is "writing with light."

 

Study a few of the notables. I'll throw the obvious one out, Eggleston, the king of banal. A couple more, Friedlander and Winogrand. By reading what these folks have to say on the matter of their photographic effort, it helps free the mind up from the constraints (chains) we've been bound up in. Understand, there's no such thing as a "valid" critique as there's only a person's personal bias'. To me, inspiration comes from freeing the mind. Inspiration comes from knowing your gear and your technique. Freedom comes about because of choices; long lense Vs WA Vs nighttime Vs macro Vs flash (on and on and on).

 

You don't have to care what anybody thinks about your effort. Don't try to please anybody but yourself. If it's another mundane pic of a leaf, go for it. If it's another pic of a bird bath, what the hey, go for it. If it's a flower coming up through the tarmac in the street, and it interests you, trip that shutter. If it's a bus (what ever the scene) grab that shot. Photograph, if for no other reason, because you like to "write with light." :)

[machts gut]

Try to find the things you do interesting and inspiring and not the places you go to!

 

I know how difficult this is, Stefan

[KenPapai]

IDEAS:

 

Do something different -- take a ferry ride or two across the Bay during the early morning or before sun set.

 

Go to a run down or abandoned industrial area and shot a lot there. Go to an old railroad yard and shoot there.

 

Make an assignment for yourself. Get out there!

 

Get on a bike, put your equiopment in a pack and ride up that hill, pull over, stop and wander in the woods or along the creek.

 

Shoot your neighborhood from very low angles; get on your stomach and shoot from there. Pretend you're a press photog out on assignment.

 

Enjoy that and have fun. (And I like the idea of charity work to further inspire the talent you possess -- you both come out as winners!)<div></div>