The Accidental Photographer
I’ve taken a few good pictures. I often wonder if they were an accident or whether I’m any good at this thing. There’s an age old debate about whether the camera takes the pictures or the photographer. If you ask me it’s a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.
The frustrating thing for me is happy accidents. You can pretend all you like and play at photographer. Compose, meter, adjust, post-process all you want. Take your photos. And somewhere in between press the shutter randomly and a week later when you develop your film find out that the one photo you didn’t intend to take was the best one of the lot. It’s a lot like a kick in the nuts from your mother.
I feel like that photographer.
December 25th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
There’s nothing I enjoy more than the serendipitous discovery when you view your processed film. It’s not like you accidentally leant on your camera, you were still there. Often times those accidents turn out better than the ones you spent ages making sure of because you over-thought the latter. Whereas the “accidents” you just did it on a whim and it had more feeling.
It’s why I get so unexcited about planned and carefully calculated works. I feel like I was creating a technical picture and not an emotional image.
Embrace and utilise your accidents and you go beyond being just a photographer (one who uses a camera to take photographs) and move toward being an artist.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Hey George, how did you know that the random one was the best of the lot? And what makes you think that anyone, anywhere, can produce art on demand, or at will? Three possibly relevant quotes for you:
Diane Arbus: “None of my photos ever came out as I expected. They were always better, or worse.”
Gary Winogrand: “I take photos because I am curious to see how things will look like photographed”
Blake Andrews: “I still have no formula for making interesting images. But after 13 years of taking photos, I am happy that I can recognise them on the contact sheet”.
I dont think that any art photographer did not ask the same questions as you throughout their career. I’d take it as a good sign