Inspiration

[michaellinder]

<p><em>"part of my brain is often occupied with being on the lookout for photographic subjects. . . ."</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

I suspect that we are either blessed or cursed (depending on one's perspective) with seeing differently than people who don't engage in photography. We notice some goings-on at a street corner, or a beautiful flower, or a shape in the architecture of a building, etc, and we "see" a photograph in the making.</p>

<p> </p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>I just came from seeing an inspiring movie, Hitchcock's <em>Vertigo</em>. Hitchcock's ability to make gestures important struck me. There's a scene where Jimmy Stewart is simply moving his head in the direction Hitchcock is obviously telling him to, while Kim Novack is doing the same, creating a bodily tension between the two of them. Hitchcock is so able to make style (signature camera angles and color choices, symbolic uses of background scenery, etc.) seep into the narrative. What's inspiring here is the layering, the way so many various aspects all seem to be working in harmony and counterpoint, as if conscious of each other, like the musicians in a good jazz band riffing off each other.</p>

<p>The stillness, unity, singularity of moment of a photo can have a similar sense of orchestration and counterpoint. Seeing that in the work of others and striving for it in my own photos is distinctly inspiring.</p>

<p>Then there's <em>Vertigo</em>'s content which is a sort of comment on plasticity and the use and objectification of women, while at the same time recognizing the passion elicited by dances between the sexes. This is all mirrored in the staging, the deft color work, the gesturing, the angles. It's as if Hitchcock breaks down any difference between narrative and technique, between symbolism and stylistics. It's inspiring to see content so adeptly revealed and explored, using the physicality of the medium to get to an emotional and narrative core.</p>

<p>_______________________________</p>

<p>In a moment of filmic "manipulation," Kim Novak emerges from the bathroom having been completely transformed back into the woman Jimmy Stewart wants her to be. As she enters the room, Hitchcock puts her in a very artificial haze that envelops only her and not the rest of the room. The artifice creates one of the most real and emotionally wrenching moments of the film. That kind of creative ability is inspiring, especially when it uses the medium itself so uniquely.<br /> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5S36iinExJ0/T6nOiS_oDqI/AAAAAAAAC8E/OwoQjRTbIoA/s1600/Intro+Vertigo+Green.jpg">(LINK)</a></p>

[dan_south]

<p>Excellent and complex question, Fred! I'll take a stab at some of your questions.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Can you put a name or face on what, if anything, inspires your photos?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It doesn't have a name or a face. It's more of a reaction to what I see in the manner of seeing a delicious dessert and wanting to eat it.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br />Is it something specific, something more general and less focused, or nothing in particular? Maybe something inspired one photo and something else inspires others. Has there been inspiration for a particular project or series or toward a stylistic approach to a project or series?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I am inspired by different things at different times - something that appeals to my eye, something that impresses me with its uniqueness or novelty, patterns, forms, shapes, colors, of something that looks right in the currently available light.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br />Have you ever searched for inspiration when feeling uninspired or does inspiration seem to flow consistently for you? Is it something you can search for or even cause to happen?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I don't have a shortage of inspiration. I have a shortage of free time.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br />Is inspiration important to you personally or significant in the scheme of things? Is the process itself of photographing or the photo that results from it inspiring? Do you get inspired more specifically by the particular subjects you're photographing? These things likely overlap and can't necessarily be separated.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Process, subjects, and results are all inspiring to me. Even when the process seems dull or like something that I don't want to do at the moment, I still get excited by it when I begin to work.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br />Can you be motivated without being inspired? Would getting paid, for instance, be motivation but not terribly inspiring for you? What, if anything, gets added to motivation when you feel inspired?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I always feel inspired, even when shooting mundane things, so there's never an absence of inspiration that requires some other source of motivation. Money is nice but I don't find that it inspires me to like the process of photographing more.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br />Does something arouse you to make photos? Is it animating or life-affirming for you?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It's one of two categories: either a reaction to things that I am seeing, experiencing, or expecting to see, or a reaction to a concept or objective that I have set for myself or committed myself to exploring.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br />Can you tell from looking at their photos, and do you care, whether other photographers seem inspired and what might be inspiring them?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I don't think I can, because it doesn't matter to me. They do their thing, and I do mine. I either like their photos or I don't. Their driving motivation and the way that they work, those aren't important to me.</p>

[michaellinder]

<p><strong>Process, subjects, and results are all inspiring to me. Even when the process seems dull or like something that I don't want to do at the moment, I still get excited by it when I begin to work.</strong><br>

<strong> </strong><br>

<strong><br /></strong>Well put, Dan.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>I had some thoughts on motivation.</p>

<p>1. I am motivated to develop and enhance the skills necessary to capture inspiration when it arises.</p>

<p>2. I am motivated to do competent work and to please clients, viewers of my work, or anyone else who requests my services.</p>

<p>3. I am motivated to keep myself open to inspirational possibilities, even those in unfamiliar genres.</p>

[Mark Z]

<p>Fred, you said "I wonder if there's a difference in tense between inspiration and influence, in that an inspiration seems to lead me forward whereas an influence seems to represent the experiences that have led me here." I think that's a good way of looking at it.<br>

I can name things that influence me, but don't inspire me. There are also things that both influence and inspire. But I have a hard time finding things that inspire but don't influence. Can something be purely inspiring but not be influential?</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Mark, I can come up with some stuff that inspires me but doesn't really influence me. Though there is an aspect of influence that I think everything we experience has on us, some quite weak and some quite strong. Nevertheless, even when we don't realize it or aren't conscious of it, everything we have contact with has some level of influence.</p>

<p>The things I am thinking of that would have relatively little influence but could be inspiring are negatives. I've seen photos I don't like and even been to gallery shows I don't like that probably don't have much influence but inspired me to do better than what I saw. Then there are certain things that I can find inspiring, but due to a general lack of interest on my part, I don't feel terribly influenced by. I've seen good chefs at work, and have even watched Dancing with the Stars occasionally, and been very inspired by the level of expertise and command I see. But these experiences haven't really influenced me in terms of my interest in cooking or ballroom dancing. Leni Riefenstahl's photos might be an example. Her work is incredibly inspiring but it hasn't exerted the kind of influence it did on a lot of people who saw her work and bought into the propaganda. Now, one could say I was not influenced politically or theoretically but may have been influenced photographically. I'd probably agree. Which just goes to show it's hard to make general statements about influence, because the answer will usually depend on a context and a particular way of seeing the influence. Maybe influence applies to particular areas of my life where inspiration seems a little more universal within me.</p>

[Allen Herbert]

<p>" tense between inspiration and influence"</p>

<p>Birds of feather to my mind.</p>

<p>We are not an Island and our influences are about our culture.. background, and inspiration stems from that coupled with new influences/cultures we are exposed to.</p>

<p>It is about stepping stones.</p>

 

[Mark Z]

<p>Allen, I interpreted Fred's statement in a similar way, that influence consists of experiences, our culture, our background, and that inspiration somehow derives from that. So, inspiration looks forward, whereas influences are in our past.<br>

Fred, I see how a negative influence could be inspiring (and motivating). I can admire and be inspired by someone's craftsmanship and creative process without my wanting to follow their particular path. Your examples put it well.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p><em>"influence consists of experiences, our culture, our background, and that </em><strong><em>inspiration somehow derives from that</em></strong><em>"</em></p>

<p>For me, yes and no. I alluded to my own thinking that <em>everything</em> derives from influence, especially if we consider that to be background, culture, biology, etc. And I do think inspiration can be very much related to our influences, but so is talent, intelligence, hair color, psychological pre-dispositions, etc. The thing, I think, that makes inspiration a little different is the <em>spark</em> of it. There's a sense in which creativity is about something new, and I think inspiration participates in that. The sense of inspiration that suggests arousal and animation, giving life, may point to something significant beyond influence or even being derived from it. I almost want to say that, while inspiration is derived from our influences, it is also <em>not</em> derived from those, something that's also spontaneous, an energy burst of sorts that seems much less grounded and traceable than our influences. </p>

[Mark Z]

<p>Fred, inspiration certainly feels different than physical or psychological qualities. Sometimes it's exhilarating like a thunderstorm or hurricane. We know what factors produce weather - fronts, humidity, temperature, convection, etc. These are the influences. But what inspires a hurricane? It must be the same forces, plus maybe the proverbial butterfly effect. It could be that inspiration comes from influences, albeit minor, untraceable, and unidentifiable influences.<br>

Do you think that inspiration is a human thing? My cat never seems to be inspired.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>It probably is a human thing. Hurricanes? They don't seem inspired to me, just caused. Storms, however, can be incredibly inspiring. The thing about us humans is that, as much as we're a product of physical chains of causation, there always seems to be that extra, important bit. Probably inspiration can be found there.</p>

[michaellinder]

<p>I think inspiration, at the very least, is something that only (some) sentient beings have. Hurricanes aren't sentient, although they can be awesome.</p>

[cyanatic]

<blockquote>Can you put a name or face on what, if anything, inspires your photos?<br /> <br /> Is it something specific, something more general and less focused, or nothing in particular? Maybe something inspired one photo and something else inspires others. Has there been inspiration for a particular project or series or toward a stylistic approach to a project or series?</blockquote>

<p>Such a good topic that it's taken me a couple of days to find time to respond to it, Fred.</p>

<p>The feeling, mood, atmosphere, or emotion that I get from certain things inspires me to photograph. It drives me ("inspires me") to want to capture and share those feelings with other people. Most often, it is looking at other photographs that inspires me. When I feel down about my work, in a slump, or question why I bother doing what I do, I get reinvigorated by picking up a book of photographs from my personal library and thumbing through it. It might be Helen Levitt, Louis Faurer, or Josef Koudelka. Or it might happen when I click on a link that someone provides here at photo.net. Just today in fact, in the Casual Photo Conversations forum, John Seaman posted a link to "Only In England", photographs by Tony Ray Jones.</p>

<p>Sometimes it can take the form of a movie or a book. The way Woody Allen shows New York in many of his movies, or reading Balzac's "Lost Illusions", inspires me to go out and try to capture a slice of life, to freeze some human tableau, to express some aspect of contemporary life in a large city.</p>

<p>It doesn't always have to involve people, either. Sometimes looking at "banal" topography by people like Stephen Shore or other of the so-called "New Topographers" can have a similar effect. But even there, humanity and the human condition is present in inanimate objects.</p>

<p>Perhaps it comes down to an interest in humanity and the human condition. If I had been a successful novelist and short story writer, I probably would not have turned to a camera for artistic expression. My photographs are short stories, scenes from novels or movies. A viewer seeing the same thing, feeling the mood that I felt I had captured, would be great, but it probably happens rarely. Still, it is deeply satisfying to me. A need, even. This helps me realize that it is not really photography that I love. I don't get excited by gear, or technology oriented discussions. Landscapes and wildlife do nothing for me. I can appreciate the work of others, but put me in a group of photographers at Yosemite or the Grand Canyon and I will inevitably wind up photographing the other photographers, not the scenery. So, for me, it is human beings and their condition and interactions that inspires me. Any good work which does the same thing: photograph, movie, or novel, will likewise inspire me.</p>

<p>Although you and I might work a little differently, Fred, I suspect that the core of what drives us is similar. Your interest in the condition of older gay men, or the residents of a home, strike a sympathetic chord with me.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br /> Have you ever searched for inspiration when feeling uninspired or does inspiration seem to flow consistently for you? Is it something you can search for or even cause to happen?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Sometimes, yes. Searching for inspiration when uninspired, that is. I can't always cause it to happen, but more often than not, engagement with good work of some sort will do the trick.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br /> Is inspiration important to you personally or significant in the scheme of things? Is the process itself of photographing or the photo that results from it inspiring? Do you get inspired more specifically by the particular subjects you're photographing? These things likely overlap and can't necessarily be separated.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I should probably make clear that my being inspired does not necessarily equate to my photographs being inspired in the sense of "good" or significant. I am inspired to go out and do it. Sometimes I come back with something I am pleased with, and sometimes I do not.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br /> Can you be motivated without being inspired? Would getting paid, for instance, be motivation but not terribly inspiring for you? What, if anything, gets added to motivation when you feel inspired?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>As I said, I am not interested in photography for photography's sake. I have been fortunate in that the times that I have been paid, it was for doing documentary work that I would have enjoyed doing for free anyway. Being paid to photograph a corporate awards ceremony, for example, is motivating due to the money, but is not terribly inspiring. Unless I can capture a spontaneous moment, say, at the buffet table. But then I am doing personal work, not what I was paid to do.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br /> I looked at definitions of <em>motivate</em> and <em>inspire</em>. <em>Motivation</em> was about incentive and a move toward action. <em>Inspiration</em> often prominently added an element of arousal and animation, even divination.<br /><br /> Does something arouse you to make photos? Is it animating or life-affirming for you?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The personal work I like to do is definitely life-affirming, even if the tone and mood of the photographs do not always appear to be.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br /><br /> Can you tell from looking at their photos, and do you care, whether other photographers seem inspired and what might be inspiring them?<br /><br /> I'm inspired by my peers, my community, and the aging process. It's emotional and visual.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I do not think I could really tell you whether a photographer was inspired when they took a photograph, only that their photograph inspires <em>me. </em>I am inspired by my peers, but not the aging process. Although I am in very good shape, the aging process depresses me in the sense of wanting to do so much, but at my age becoming aware of a biological clock ticking in the distance. And that ticking clock does not herald a new life as it might for a woman in her thirties. It is the herald of the end of life and the end of doing what I love to do.</p>

<p>A few words on inspiration and influence. I can be inspired by someone's work, but not necessarily be influenced by them. I can be inspired by the work of Martin Parr or Tony Ray Jones, but I do not have their sardonic style, nor aspire to it. So I do not see inspiration and influence as equivalent.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Hey, thanks, Steve! A lot to chew over. Give me a bit of time to address more of your thoughts. For now, my gut reaction to one thing you said.</p>

<p><em>"The way Woody Allen shows New York in many of his movies"</em></p>

<p>What a terrific example! Woody Allen is so NY and he makes that palpable in the films that take place there. It's, at least in part, his intimacy with the city that allows him such an acute visualization of it. He's got the New York City gesture down. It's in him.</p>

<p>Interestingly, though I liked the film enough (not one of my favorites), his most recent film, <em>Blue Jasmine</em>, takes place in San Francisco, and I thought he completely missed the flavor of the city. (Or maybe he wanted to be purposefully superficial about it.) San Francisco has such a unique feel to it and really has so much nuance to add to a story and I felt he handled it more like a tourist postcard than the depth and soul he's able to give to NY.</p>

<p>Hitchcock, on the other hand, who filmed <em>Vertigo</em> here in San Francisco (I wrote about it above), really was able to use the city beautifully to his purposes. It's not so much that he captured the soul of the city like Allen does with NY. But he utilized it in such a complementary way to the story as it developed, often from a visual and stylistic standpoint. Narratively, he traded on the Bohemian / more well-to-do dichotomy ever-present in San Francisco, personified in the contrast between the characters of Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Here's <a href="http://heres-looking-like-you-kid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/vertigo-1958-barbara-bel-geddes-tries-and-fails-to-whoo-jimmy-stewart-with-some-not-so-subtle-humour.jpg">Bel Geddes</a> in her artist studio/apartment and <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-88d3aVr9e1I/UTFEebbY60I/AAAAAAAABng/y4qd8OBptys/s1600/kim4.jpg">Novak</a> dining at the upper crust restaurant Ernie's. </p>

[michaellinder]

<p><strong>So, for me, it is human beings and their condition and interactions that inspires me.</strong><br>

<strong> </strong><br>

Steve, this statement vividly reminded me of an important source of inspiration in my life, which I neglected to mention previously. I'm referring to how people deal with adversity and struggle in their lives. In my own case, life early on wasn't much fun, and it's taken me a long time to overcome the issues that arose from this. I'm acutely aware that, in many ways, I still have a "victim mentality," and I am drawn to those who seem to be underdogs. </p>

<p>My best example of inspiration is my grandmother. She lost both of her daughters within less than 5 years, had a major coronary event, and still had the strength to take on raising a difficult 10 year old child.</p>

 

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Michael, can you tie either the content or style or some aspect of your photos themselves (or some of your photos) to the kind of inspiration you talk about, adversity in struggle in your own life or the lives of others? I'm wondering about correspondences between inspiration and photo <em>per se</em>.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p><em>"The feeling, mood, atmosphere, or emotion that I get from certain things inspires me to photograph. It drives me ("inspires me") to want to capture and share those feelings with other people."</em></p>

<p>Steve, I see this (and have seen it and probably mentioned it before) in your work itself. Leslie mentioned <em>atmosphere</em> above, and I think capturing and/or conveying the atmosphere in a photo (in the sense of the mood of a scene) really can imbue it with emotional depth and is so important in connecting a viewer. What's interesting is that, though you are driven to share those feelings, that desire to share doesn't come across at all self consciously in your work. Your photos seem to naturally <em>be</em> a sharing of something under the surface, of a mood or a presence, and don't come across as <em>trying to be</em> that. Your photos don't come across with a gawker mentality or perspective. That may be a tribute to your ability to empathize or even a simple lack of self consciousness on your part.</p>

<p><em>"Being paid to photograph a corporate awards ceremony, for example, is motivating due to the money, but is not terribly inspiring. Unless I can capture a spontaneous moment"</em></p>

<p>Are you ever aware, while in the moment or afterward, of capturing spontaneous moments (or spontaneity in general even if not in a spontaneous <em>moment</em>) even when you're shooting what's more staged or what seems less spontaneous or inspiring? A gesture happening, a look, an unexpected expression, a moment of connection between two people even when you're shooting something that feels more mundane, staged, or set up, like the more formal or planned shots in a wedding or corporate event?</p>

[cyanatic]

<blockquote>Are you ever aware, while in the moment or afterward, of capturing spontaneous moments (or spontaneity in general even if not in a spontaneous <em>moment</em>) even when you're shooting what's more staged or what seems less spontaneous or inspiring? A gesture happening, a look, an unexpected expression, a moment of connection between two people even when you're shooting something that feels more mundane, staged, or set up, like the more formal or planned shots in a wedding or corporate event?</blockquote>

<p>Absolutely, but it is something I need to make myself more conscious of, and open to. I think this is an area where you have a lot of experience and a gift for seeking that out in work that might initially be staged, for lack of a better word. I believe you have spoken before of setting up some of your portrait work, and yet coming across those spontaneous moments, the unexpected expression, the connection between two people, etc. So I do not mean to imply that such things can <em>only </em>occur in purely candid moments where the photographer's presence is unknown to the subject(s).</p>

<p>Michael, I have a question similar to Fred's: when you speak of some people's ability to deal with adversity (yours' or your grandmother's) as being an inspiration, do you feel that informs some of your photography somehow?<br>

</p>

[michaellinder]

<p>Fred, you may remember providing me with a very helpful set of comments when I posted a photograph of my father-in-law taken on the occasion of his 93rd birthday. This is the best example I can provide for now. (My wife and I just bought another house, and we are in the process of moving.) See http://www.photo.net/photo/8295917. </p>

<p>My father-in-law also was a source of inspiration from the moment I met him in 1965. Initially, he taught me a huge lesson in humility (a long story, which I'll save for another occasion perhaps). His life was a series of struggles, starting with being out on the streets of Brooklyn to work odd jobs when he was in his early teens. He had an eminently successful business venture until he made a poor investment decision, and then he literally had to start from scratch. Dad's persona was much like Kazantzakis' Zorba. From earlier in his life until about age 90, he drank 4 or 5 doubles of Canadian Club each day, railed at injustices he found in the world, and gave me the love of a father I never had experienced in my life before I met him. He died 2 months before his 96th birthday, and I miss him terribly. </p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Michael, when I think about struggle and survival, I also think about alienation and the overcoming of it. I think there is much to say about alienation with respect to a lot of photography and art. Your portfolio has a lot of abstracts and I've always thought there is an element of alienation in abstract work. It refuses to be narrative and literal. So, while shooting your father-in-law could certainly be inspired by your empathy with his struggles, I think there can also be more loose associations to struggle and survival. I am drawn to some abstract work, though not a lot. Mondrian has always been a favorite of mine. And I think if I got into it myself, I might approach it from this perspective of alienation. In a sense, for me, I could see it being somewhat cathartic. One could pour into it their emotions without necessarily needing to picture them. And, yet, they would be pictured in the work, just not so literally. In a sense, photography seems to me one of the more literal of the arts since we do usually point the camera at something in the world we are in the presence of. To break that literalness through abstraction is a somewhat alienating act . . . in a good way.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Just want to add that there are many levels of abstraction and even the most representative and literal photo can have abstract qualities and elements and a kind of abstract reach. I think that's when I feel the presence of inspiration in others' photos I see. When I feel a sense of their having abstracted something, whether through perspective, juxtaposition, plays with light, uses of lens and focus, use of dark shadows . . . Not only with heavy stylistic choices (though that can be part of it) but simply through their way of seeing, their imbuing of content with some sort of symbolic, artistic, or emotional form.</p>

[michaellinder]

<p>Not only is the breaking through an alienating act; it also is a liberating one. I agree that abstraction is - or can be - in the form of levels. I think that's why I'm so attracted to it. It's up to me how far down the rabbit hole I wish to go.</p>

[charleswood]

<p>Fred, referring to some of Michael's work:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Your portfolio has a lot of abstracts and I've always thought there is an element of alienation in abstract work. It refuses to be narrative and literal.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I would benefit from Fred and/or Michael, selecting an abstract from Michael's work that illustrates the idea that an abstract isn't narrative and literal, contains levels. Where are the levels suggested in a photograph, and with a photographic example, how does that relate back to alienation?</p>

<p>I recently heard an idea: rage as a wellspring of art, or of artistic impulses. Is the idea behind alienation related to that idea of rage?</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p><em>"Is the idea behind alienation related to that idea of rage?"</em></p>

<p>In short, yes. I think rage is likely a form (and perhaps an extreme one) of alienation. I think alienation can also come in much quieter guises than rage. Loneliness is often a form of alienation and may come with more passivity and no real rage.</p>

<p>Charles, I want to keep separate two things I was talking about. I think abstraction is often non-narrative and non-literal. That's one point. A separate point, the one I was making about levels, is a little different. I think one can look at seemingly very representational photos and art and see levels of abstraction, meaning that just as important as the narrative or recognition that a photo is "of this or that thing" are the more abstract qualities of geometry, shape, form, line, shadow, and light that can take it to other "levels" besides it being a photo of such and such. A fully "abstract" photo (as when we talk about "abstract art") just takes that idea all the way to where the real-world substance is simply no longer relevant or recognizable.</p>

<p>I'll get back to you with examples.</p>