If you've followed my writing here for a while you've no doubt figured out that I really like shooting portraits and I really like doing it with medium format cameras. Some people have (rightly) conjectured that I like doing it that way because of habit. And to a point I agree.But I'm not the least bit torn by the direction or the production of my portraits. I am torn by my desire to write and to photograph and I constantly worry that I won't be able to do either as well as I could if I cast one of the two passions away and concentrated on doing one thing well.
But that's really tough. Which way to go? I think the question is particularly poignant for me today because I've been slamming away at my laptop finishing the writing on my fourth book. I called it "quits" at 44,000 words because I couldn't think of anything else genuine to say about my subject. I still have to harvest one hundred photos (give or take a dozen) and caption them, but the hard part of the writing is over.
And here's my issue/problem/conundrum: How to balance the visual side with the word side? Do I need to abandon the book writing to concentrate on the photographs or vice versa? It's an interesting predicament.
I think it took writing a book about lighting equipment to make me realize that much of what Steven Pressfield says in his book, The War of Art, is correct. That we accept assignments that seem like opportunities but are really our subconscious minds throwing obstacles in our true paths. I really want to write a book about the "why" of photography but I keep writing about the "how". That's supposedly the stuff the market wants. But have people tried another way? Are there books out there that I've just missed that talk about a person's journey as a photographer?
I would love to read a book that documents the life of a great fashion or advertising photographer from the photographer's point of view, not a biographer's. A book filled with the trepidation, the hesitation and the fear of moving one's art forward. I'd love to know if all artists are filled with the same lack of self confidence and jittering anxiety about their own work. Instead we get what the artists want to project: confidence, the illusion of mastery and a public persona that's all about being comfortably, confidently at the top.
I'd love to hear about the tight spots, the model meltdowns, the financial set backs, the family friction and the un-winnable battle to balance the domestic pull with the frantic tug of art. A de-glamorizing look at the business and the craft of photography. An assignment shooting waste water treatment plants in Biloxi instead of Madonna in Paris.
That's a book I'd buy.
Very nice "voice" to the conundrum. Any of the books on Modigliani put some voice to that. I haven't finished the Ansel Adams book, but I think there is some of his issues in there, dealing with his clients.
ReplyDeleteKirk,
ReplyDeleteAs someone that's bought and read all your previous books (and as a fellow Texan) I just have one thing to say. Don't you dare quit writing! If you need encouragement, I'll buy you few beers! If you come to Sugar Land, I'll buy you dinner. Just keep the words and of course, the images flowing. Learning is something that never stops as long as we can find teachers to enlighten us, inspire us and encourage us. Be that teacher Kirk!
BTW - Buy David duChemin's new book. He's done a wonderful job connecting the how with the why.
Jeff
Thanks for the great message Jeff. I'll buy duChemin's book. Sounds very good. I appreciate the sentiment.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, why don't YOU write that book?
ReplyDeleteI just might but I'm not a fashion guy and I thought having a little bit of prurient interest would keep people interested while I poured out my soul in the rest of the book......
ReplyDeleteIt could be just me, but I think a lot of us find the "why" only after we have the skills to answer the "how".
ReplyDeleteWhen you are starting the journey you are obsessed with the how, the tools, the shiny buttons, the magic of making images. Telling stories is hard, sorry, I should qualify that, telling great stories is hard. As much as many of us are dying to do that, we simply don't know how to tell the stories that stir in the back of our hearts, at least not without it coming across as cheesy and insincere. So we look at the how-to books to see if there's something we missed on the road to sorting through the why.
But it might just be me, I'm ordinary but not normal.
My main driver is that I am a bit of a butterfly, I found going into the office, sitting in front of a screen every day, incredibly dull. My best friend of 30 years works in a very well paid job in a bank. Goes in in the dark, comes home in the dark. I spend most days going out and about meeting people chatting and making a few pictures. Being nosey about how people live makes my job one of the best ones out there.
ReplyDeleteHelmut Newton's autobiography was published a few years ago. If anybody had bumps in the road, it was he.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sending me that. I don't know how I missed it. Off to Amazon for Helmut's book.
ReplyDeleteKirk,
ReplyDeleteYou can't quit either! I get way too much out of your readings, and I get a lot out of your images too! You can't quit either...I won't allow it :-P In all seriousness...do you think if you stop photography (or at least stop doing it as much) that you'll become a better writer? I'm not 100% convinced it always works this way. Maybe you'll just become a mediocre writer because you won't be practicing the passion that you enjoy writing about. If it were me, I could still grow as a photographer without writing about photography, but it would be hard for me to write about photography if I had given it up.
Hi Kirk,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is what you want, it's definitely not an autobiography, but I recommend you check out Jeanloup Sieff's book, 40 Years of Photography. Wonderful writing, interesting captions, and most of all, great photography.
As for YOUR writing.. it's some of the best on the subject of photography that I've read. So keep it up please. You'll just have to find a way to do both.
John C.
Thanks John. I intend to keep writing but I really have a book in mind that doesn't seem to have a publisher. I'm finishing up my fourth book for my current publisher but they really like to keep to a very specific market and I would like to do something a bit more narrative. I'm thinking I'll finish up the one in front of me and then do one for myself and see how I can best distribute it........
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kirk. As a novice photogapher, it was greatly encouraging to here a veteran speak so frankly about the uncertainties ... 'the illusions of mastery' ... and, of course, the patience and hard work. You've helped at least one person greatly (me).
ReplyDeleteIt's not really about photography, but it's a quick and good read; Art & Fear Observations On The Perils (and Rewards) of ARTMAKING by David Bayles & Ted Orland
ReplyDeleteThanks for a good recommendation. I've read it several times. Also, Steven Pressfield's book, The War of Art. Both great kick in the butt books.
ReplyDelete