Thank you, for including me in your newsletter this week! It is a great topic and I am sure helpful to many. I find studying photobooks a great way to reconnect with photography and very inspirational too!
Numbers 2, 4, 5, & 6 are things I do all the time (all the time being every now and then haha), but I am definitely someone who doesn't touch the camera unless I feel an urge to do so. It's funny, now that I am not working and I have all this free time I feel less compelled to photograph than when I was working and only had a small amount of photo time available after work or on weekends and that rush to try to fill that available time was often frustrating because a lot of it felt forced like I "had" to make good use of that time. Fast forward to know and I am in this strange place where part of me is calling me a loser for not being "productive" with all this free time, but another part of me is feeling more fulfilled in the last couple of months with just taking pictures in the backyard whenever a urge hits me to go outside and look around. I've come to appreciate the smallest things in the last three months with just photographing in a small space like a door that's not usually open being open, a new car parked in a odd spot, the budding if new plants, a new hope the dog dug and so on. Often I'll just be sitting around and then it just hits me, go outside, grab the camera, and somehow these intuitive moments generally relate to one of these moments where something "new" is happening in the garden space or outside of it. Great newsletter, so many great insights and good ideas! Thank you for sharing!
RE: Put the Camera Away: Rodney Smith shot at most maybe 40-50 times a year and could go 6 months without shooting. But throughout he stayed close to photography, curating and printing and planning. I sense that volume and frequency too often define a photographer's output and feelings of success. But so much is to be gained from putting the camera down and revisiting older work for a spell. It's amazing how doing that can reignite your passion as give you a different perspective when you start shooting again.
Ok, but seriously, this is great! I have written about similar themes, but not in the context of falling back in love with the craft, and I appreciate being able to revisit this post as a reminder. One of the main reasons I started a Substack was to get away from the trappings of social media, one of which is subconsciously mimicking trends and losing track of my own style. It's great to see more photographers coming here to talk about their own.
I personally would skip 6...It’s just because I believe art should be based on intuition and we should follow our hearts and own creativity without caring about what anybody thinks…even if it comes from a good place...
Thank you, for including me in your newsletter this week! It is a great topic and I am sure helpful to many. I find studying photobooks a great way to reconnect with photography and very inspirational too!
Of course! Thanks so much for the encouragement. Photobooks are are definitely a great way to stir up inspiration!
Numbers 2, 4, 5, & 6 are things I do all the time (all the time being every now and then haha), but I am definitely someone who doesn't touch the camera unless I feel an urge to do so. It's funny, now that I am not working and I have all this free time I feel less compelled to photograph than when I was working and only had a small amount of photo time available after work or on weekends and that rush to try to fill that available time was often frustrating because a lot of it felt forced like I "had" to make good use of that time. Fast forward to know and I am in this strange place where part of me is calling me a loser for not being "productive" with all this free time, but another part of me is feeling more fulfilled in the last couple of months with just taking pictures in the backyard whenever a urge hits me to go outside and look around. I've come to appreciate the smallest things in the last three months with just photographing in a small space like a door that's not usually open being open, a new car parked in a odd spot, the budding if new plants, a new hope the dog dug and so on. Often I'll just be sitting around and then it just hits me, go outside, grab the camera, and somehow these intuitive moments generally relate to one of these moments where something "new" is happening in the garden space or outside of it. Great newsletter, so many great insights and good ideas! Thank you for sharing!
For sure! Totally get where you’re coming from and would agree! Would love to have more convos in the future for sure.
RE: Put the Camera Away: Rodney Smith shot at most maybe 40-50 times a year and could go 6 months without shooting. But throughout he stayed close to photography, curating and printing and planning. I sense that volume and frequency too often define a photographer's output and feelings of success. But so much is to be gained from putting the camera down and revisiting older work for a spell. It's amazing how doing that can reignite your passion as give you a different perspective when you start shooting again.
that was fire bro.
Ok, but seriously, this is great! I have written about similar themes, but not in the context of falling back in love with the craft, and I appreciate being able to revisit this post as a reminder. One of the main reasons I started a Substack was to get away from the trappings of social media, one of which is subconsciously mimicking trends and losing track of my own style. It's great to see more photographers coming here to talk about their own.
-Chris
I personally would skip 6...It’s just because I believe art should be based on intuition and we should follow our hearts and own creativity without caring about what anybody thinks…even if it comes from a good place...