Shawn brings up an excellent point, which --- if I may be
so bold as to rephrase it --- is to listen to your own work.
It tells you where you've been, who you are, how you are
doing, and where to go.
On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, Shawn Wright wrote:
<snip>
> I had become much more fluent in the language of photography, as witnessed
> by a much higher percentage of technically correct shots.
I would say you had become more fluent in the technical aspects.
> But it also became evident that my vision, or ability to convey my feelings
> for a
> subject have not grown by nearly as much.
Did you spend the majority of your energies on the technical ? If so
the results make sense.
> One thing which constantly drives
> me further are a few shots taken in my teens which I feel I have yet to
> improve on, or in some cases, even equal. An interesting thing about
> these few photos: in each case I have a perfect recollection of the
> scene - maybe this is a result of an emotional connection which
> resulted in the image?
It could be. The image will only generate as much passion as you
put into it, and perhaps you may have felt more passion and/or felt
freer about expressing it back then. Some photographers seem to know
when they've bagged an exceptional image, others are surprised to find
them in the contacts/slides later. Stieglitz knew right when he
shot them, the best images of his photographic life. His account
of shooting "The Steerage" is fascinating.
> A big part of this is simply time, or lack of it. 15 years ago, I could spend
> 4-5
> hours shooting in the morning, then another 3-4 hours in the darkroom at
> night,
> while the morning was still fresh in my mind. Now, I'm lucky if I can do this
> much in sometimes in a month...
This is also part of the sacrifices one makes for their art, the
pouring of one's personal energies into this, not that. Of course,
the primary strategy for those short on time is: Organize yourself
so that whatever time you may have is put to best use in the
field.
*= Doris Fang =*
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