On Photography....
Recent blog post by David DuChemain, one of the various photographers I follow across social media...
I've been thinking on this a lot myself lately. The balance between sharing and comparing and focusing on [simple] expression of self. I like what David says in this post regarding the dangers of comparing your work to others and competing for space....
It’s a brutally tough balance to find, especially when there are so many voices clamouring for attention, a chorus to which we feel we must inevitably add our own. But some days it feels like it’s a chorus of voices all trying to out-sing the other and it’s exhausting. And it’s worse when we hope those voices are saying things about us. And we keep checking in to see if they have.
I wonder if listening to such a glut of voices doesn’t rob us of the space to listen to our own. I know I’m having a tough time finding a signal in all the noise. I’m distracted. I feel like my job has become more about “being a (well known) photographer” than making photographs. I love you all, and I care about you, but checking Facebook to see if you like my blog, my photograph, my clever little whatever, it’s exhausting and it’s killing my muse. It’s not about you. It’s about ego.
Julie Neidlinger said it well when she wrote, “I can’t be authentic, be original, be all these “true to yourself” kinds of existences if I care what you are thinking.”
Remember when every frame was golden and filled with wonder? Remember being so in love with the strange, beautiful alchemy of this craft that we weren’t looking for atta-boys or Facebook likes? When our joy came from the creation, not the feedback? Remember how that joy led to curious, creative play, and the way the hours would pass while we were on our knees with a camera in the grass, or watching images come alive in the darkroom? Remember when the name on our gear didn’t matter because it was just all so mind-blowingly magical and we didn’t care what others thought about us? I do.
What David says about "many voices clamouring for attention..", that resonates with me regarding posts I've made in the past about how SPN convention feel different to me.
I think the quote he shares from Julie Neidlinger is wonderful. I'm sure it's a pretty typical human tendency. Comparison of self to others. It's very hard to overcome or at least to keep in check. I don't know about you all, but I frequently have to battle that voice that says I can't do x, y, or z as well as this other person. When I find myself slipping I try to bring it back to, "it doesn't matter. Just enjoy what you are doing, that is enough."
Still. I wish there was a silver bullet to just silence that little negative voice.
╚══════.♢.═╝
I've been thinking on this a lot myself lately. The balance between sharing and comparing and focusing on [simple] expression of self. I like what David says in this post regarding the dangers of comparing your work to others and competing for space....
It’s a brutally tough balance to find, especially when there are so many voices clamouring for attention, a chorus to which we feel we must inevitably add our own. But some days it feels like it’s a chorus of voices all trying to out-sing the other and it’s exhausting. And it’s worse when we hope those voices are saying things about us. And we keep checking in to see if they have.
I wonder if listening to such a glut of voices doesn’t rob us of the space to listen to our own. I know I’m having a tough time finding a signal in all the noise. I’m distracted. I feel like my job has become more about “being a (well known) photographer” than making photographs. I love you all, and I care about you, but checking Facebook to see if you like my blog, my photograph, my clever little whatever, it’s exhausting and it’s killing my muse. It’s not about you. It’s about ego.
Julie Neidlinger said it well when she wrote, “I can’t be authentic, be original, be all these “true to yourself” kinds of existences if I care what you are thinking.”
Remember when every frame was golden and filled with wonder? Remember being so in love with the strange, beautiful alchemy of this craft that we weren’t looking for atta-boys or Facebook likes? When our joy came from the creation, not the feedback? Remember how that joy led to curious, creative play, and the way the hours would pass while we were on our knees with a camera in the grass, or watching images come alive in the darkroom? Remember when the name on our gear didn’t matter because it was just all so mind-blowingly magical and we didn’t care what others thought about us? I do.
What David says about "many voices clamouring for attention..", that resonates with me regarding posts I've made in the past about how SPN convention feel different to me.
I think the quote he shares from Julie Neidlinger is wonderful. I'm sure it's a pretty typical human tendency. Comparison of self to others. It's very hard to overcome or at least to keep in check. I don't know about you all, but I frequently have to battle that voice that says I can't do x, y, or z as well as this other person. When I find myself slipping I try to bring it back to, "it doesn't matter. Just enjoy what you are doing, that is enough."
Still. I wish there was a silver bullet to just silence that little negative voice.
╚══════.♢.═╝