LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2773 with Brooks Jensen

Twelve For Six

I continue to have all kinds of fun doing Seeing In SIXES projects. I've been doing them long enough now that I'm starting to see certain patterns emerge that help the process. For example, when I try to produce a Seeing In SIXES project I'd better have more than six candidates to choose from. I don't need a hundred, but the editing/selection process is so integral to the format that there have to be extras that help me clarify and intensify the theme. I've come to recognize that the ideal minimum number of candidates for me is 12-16. Knowing this, when I'm in the field I keep shooting until I have at least a dozen that might fit the project.

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Here's a Thought… #2772 with Brooks Jensen

That Special Travel Feeling

Why is it that travel seems to precipitate a heighten sense of excitement to photograph that is missing from our home or daily routines? Is it simply that we are trying "to take it all in" while traveling? If so, can we purposely develop that "take it all in" attitude at will? At home? After all, a visitor from some distant land might travel to your home town with that same "take it all in" mind and be fascinated with your everyday experiences.

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Here's a Thought… #2771 with Brooks Jensen

Your Work and Ansel Adams

I've said for a long time now that the most influential attribute of a work of art is the signature of the artist. That is, a very bad Ansel Adams print will be more valuable than our best. Of course, the mental trap in that thought is the equating of fame/value and merit. I would unhesitatingly say that many of your photographs are every bit as good as an Ansel Adams photograph. Your work may never be as famous as an Adams print, but that does not mean it can't have the merit and power to move us profoundly. Perhaps merit is in the eye of the beholder.

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Here's a Thought… #2770 with Brooks Jensen

Yes, Seagulls

There are some subject clichés that are so cliché they become uber clichés. I would be willing to bet that every one of you have a photograph of a seagull in your archives that you've never shown to anyone because, well, it's a picture of a seagull. Does that mean seagulls are overtly non-photogenic? Or does it mean that they are inherently difficult to photograph without the picture becoming a cliché? I suppose the same could be said for sunsets, dewy spider webs, and kittens playing with yarn. That said, nothing is more cliché than a photograph of a seagull. Which is maybe the best reason to attempt a Seeing in SIXES project of seagulls.

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Here's a Thought… #2769 with Brooks Jensen

My Favorite Dead Fish Picture

One of my favorite pictures from 50 years of photography was photographed in a rural village in Japan. Outside the fish market was a little stand that included 60 or 70 herring splayed out to dry. There's shiny bodies were fantastic and led to one of my all-time favorite photographs. I have it hanging in the trailer. I'm about to take it down. Lynn pointed out an obvious fact that I'd never seen in 30 years. IT'S A PICTURE OF DEAD FISH. It will always be a picture of dead fish, regardless of how beautiful the print is, how sensual the tones are, it simply can't be anything other than a picture of dead fish.

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