Surviving The Carnage To Creativity, Pt 1

It’s been some time since I wrote anything anywhere. It’s not that I don’t have the thoughts, energy, or ideas. It’s that I am tired of the battles. I am not tired of fighting the battles, just the battles. I am a warrior and will never surrender.  So, I had a conversation with my selves. We decided the best way to survive is to get cameras.

See, the attack upon my humanity I can get past someway. The attack on my creative essence is not so easy. After you survive, the residue is carnage. The carnage is what you have to work with to try and get whole again. It demands attention and perseverance to make it.

I address these issues with my cameras.  Even my camera cabinet has the presence of carnage. I sold many cameras in the last 2 years. They were Covid sell-offs. I acquired what I really felt a kinship with but alas, our relationship was not strong enough to last. I am kinda the same with wives, that’s why I have 3 exes.  It’s not easy to acquire cameras and even more difficult to unload them.

Anyway, I know I’m rambling but I need to clean out the dust in my poor brain. As photographers, we are editors and curators of our lives. With our photos, we shoot and then edit the ones we care about and then curate them to a place of recognition. Maybe not for others but for ourselves and that’s what matters.

So for me, editing is an ongoing process that works in most areas of life. Cameras for example. Have you ever shopped for a camera? Well, editing them lets you decide what you want to keep and what not to keep.  Curating is kinda like keeping them on a shelf or working with them.

Editing photos is an entirely different process. It has the way and means to cripple your creative energy and more. There should be ONE pure intent to process editing your work. That is, to satisfy the love and energy of your work for you. No other agenda need to apply.  That of course is an impossible task. There are so many internal as well as external pollutants that penetrate our eye, heart, and mind.

I will do my best to reborn the blog. Some have asked for a while and some don’t give a hoot. So I do it for the ones that asked and the ones that never knew about this and for me.

Be Blessed and don’t take any wooden nickles. No, I have no clue what that means but I’m sure it means something.

26 thoughts on “Surviving The Carnage To Creativity, Pt 1”

  1. Hey Don,

    Your text can be confusing, your photographs never are. I’m glad you’re back out there and it’s really nice to see your images.

    -Ray

      1. Doing great Don. I’m a Pop Pop now, mkost of my photos are family stuff and my camera these days is my iPhone. Which have gotten pretty damn good.

  2. Good to see you’re still kicking around with a camera! I’ve seen shots on Flickr, though, so I figured you were doing alright. Keeping up with a blog is harder work than it seems.

    I’m curious which cameras made the cut, COVID and all!

  3. Hi Don! I had noticed that you hadn’t written anything in a while. It seems the events of the past few years have put us all in a creative funk. Glad you’re back. I look forward to reading more of your posts and seeing your photography again.

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