….ringy, ringy, youse all know now that’s the phone. Hi Don, it’s me, Linda, I’m ready so let’s meet at the Magee bus stop. Okie Dokie I say. After a few minutes, we are both there. I have Garry the Olympus Pen-F and Linda has the still unnamed Leica M10+. We sit and all around us are school kids. They are standing, sitting, squatting, laying, climbing and things I dare not mention. If Arlo was here, there’d be a new song. Anyway, the bus gets to the terminal and we walk to the Elevated train and get seats in the back so we can talk. Many kids storm the train and there are no less than 14,000 standing right near us. Linda says it was 13,471 but I won’t argue with a lady. One thing they all have in common, the use of profanity. Oh yeah, I hear many profanity type words and now I understand what they learn in school. I myself, hardly ever use profanity. I mean why the hell would I talk in such a shitty way?
The train continues on its journey and then, then we reach the land of Oz and almost all the kids, all 13,471 -14,000 do the deboarding procedures. Linda looks me dead in the eye and says, I’m proud of you for not giving the kids a hard time. We deboard the train at 15th Street and start walking to the diner on 18th. Linda has her M10+ in her hand and is taking snaps as we walk. She’s a taker at this point and not a maker yet.
She asked me to define my thoughts on the foundation of work. I told her I really did in the last post but she said she didn’t read that post but just lived it. Ok, so I explain that when we work, there are triggers that make us release the exposure. I’m not talking about the exposure equivalent, I mean the location of the eye, heart, and mind at the time of exposure. Let’s assume that we all have certain subject matters that we let into our heart and mind. When we go to work, our eyes seek to realize what the heart and mind have accepted as fit for photographic pursuit. The foundation is essentially the roots of our body of work.
There are common denominators that define what we do with our work. For example, Icons, Street, Social Seen, Juxtaposition, The Light and The Dark. These are some of the stones of my foundation. When I work, maybe one or another pop-up and direct me so explore it. Without a recognition of your foundation, you will never feel satisfied and worse yet, kinda lost with your camera. Always looking for “What, Where”.
There are a few ways to live this journey. One is to wander around and hope that you find a photo that equals your intent, eye, heart, and mind. The other is to have a map to explore but always aware that you live this map. Of course, you can wander around all you like but with a map, you know when you are exploring either new territory or, the path that you know well. The map is the foundation and the foundation is the very essence of your life.
Great post, Don.
Which points to the Great Divide: the day maps went from solid paper to impermanent screen. From a static but tangible reality to an all-knowing, ever-adaptable but intangible ghost. A bit like the rest of our lives… May we all keep printing our photos, lest they and we vanish into screen ghosts….
Giovanni, first off….thanks.
Ghost is a good way to look and feel about things. For me, that implies that something was alive and then dies and now is wandering around in a lifeless form. For me it’s about memories. Photos are very usefull for supporting memories and also allowing a new interpretation. For some reason, we are led to believe that photos are a tangible representation of memories. Thanks for the inspiration and I will write about this on the blog, shortly.
Don
Screen ghosts are surely more efficient, but nothing like a paper map (and by extension, a print of a photograph) can absorb our attention and force us to engage our mind, leave a permanent mark, a memory of paths past and the promise of paths future. Including coffee stains sometimes.
Some interesting observations on the foundations of photography work. You have a way of putting things into perspective. Another enlightening post Don. And I really love the shot of the train – just an excellent capture. Have a great weekend.
As always, Thanks Dave
Some excellent thoughts on the foundation of photography work. Something I really haven’t given much thought to. But now that I have read this enlightening post I will have no choice but to. By the way – just love the shot of the train/man. Really excellent. Have a great weekend Don.
Don, sorry about 2 identical comments showing up. After I posted the first one it did not appear to have posted so I just repeated it. I guess there must be a slight delay sometimes.
Hi Don,
You’ve stated “… thoughts on the foundation of work …”.
At times, I sense it’s about capturing the emotion of that slice of time.
Sure there are, as you put it “… Icons, Street, Social Seen, Juxtaposition, The Light and The Dark. These are some of the stones of my foundation…”.
Possibly, by extension, when it’s all boiled down, even though these bits, you identify above, act as catalytic contributors to help drive our passion, so in sum, the emotional response to the crafted image, because that image captured the moment when everything [Eye, Heart and Mind] was in alignment, to cup us in it’s emotive hand and take us back to our fertile decisive moments – supported by the bits that have come to make our foundation.
Regards
Sean
Sean, as always…thanks for the ever expanding thoughts. I see the foundation as the building blocks of our work. So then in time if we get to a point that we feel lost, we strip away the glitter and thoughts and everything until we are left with us and our foundation. That’s where the gist of the eye, heart and mind preside. I’m doing the next post and publishing shortly and hopefully, you’ll get what I’m saying. Actually, you get what I’m saying better than I get myself.
Thanks my friend….don