“even the failed pieces are essential”

At some point, we have to work on ourselves. At the beginning, and perhaps for many many years, most of us direct our attention to the technicalities of picture making, not realising that perhaps the keys to our development as a photographer lie within us.

It took me a while to realise that everything that I do, even the so called ‘failed’ pieces have value. Nothing is a failure as such, and if I kept up this pretence that it was, then I would be fearful of experimentation, fearful of trying out new things.

These days, If I am asked ‘how many successful images do I get on a roll of film’, I tend to respond with:

‘everything is a stepping stone to the next image’

Meaning that everything is an exploration. Images that I am particularly pleased with rarely come from just making one shot. I have to make several, and I have to try out many different variances of composition, focal length.

These days, I don’t look despondently at the images that had to be made in order for me to get to the ones that I am most proud of. These days I realise they had to happen, and they are the reason why the images I am most happy with are what they are.

I think I know myself pretty well these days. Having had to do a lot of self enquiry about how I deal with the ups and downs of creating art. But I think it is always good to hear either confirmation of what you trust to be true in someone else’s writings, or perhaps to hear a view that you had not considered before.

‘I didn’t know I knew that’

Is another way of saying you had an epiphany - a moment of sudden insight. Insight is the process of self-learning. Of understanding that something you had not considered before, or did not know, is true.

So, perhaps this book is for you? I’ve started to listen to the audio book version of it. Because as much as I feel I don’t need to learn much about myself as a creative person these days, this kind of dialog does open up some questions, and occasionally gives me insights that I ‘didn’t know I knew’.

As always on this blog. I am less and less interested in the technicalities of image making, or the gear. I am more interested in the person behind the camera, because it is in our hangups, our attitudes and perhaps misguided beliefs that we can either progress or stand still as an artist.

And yet it is not so apparent to most. Many of us can spend years, decades, or perhaps our life times thinking that we need to focus more on the equipment, the gear, and the ‘how to do this’ videos that are out there, seldom realising that the self awareness aspects of ourselves is really at the heart of how we deal with the process of making art.