The year of the fire horse has arrived! With it, we move into considering the craft of photography.
I love the synchronicity of exploring an art that is created by capturing light while we mark a lunar new year illuminated by fire. The new moon is a time of darkness - but the spark is already present.
When I was initially thinking about how to design The Total Artist as an online experiment, I questioned where photography should fit.
In one sense, it belongs in the world of visual art - this is an obvious kinship. While the tools may be different (a camera versus a paintbrush), the output of an image is the same.
However, most of us will have a very different relationship to photography than we do to drawing/painting/sculpture/etc. The way we engage with these two mediums is, on the whole, wildly dissimilar.
It is almost impossible - as a human being and as an artist - to exist in today’s world without becoming a creator of pictures and film in some capacity. This is how we document and share our lives and our work.
Photography is inescapable.
So to me, it felt like photography deserved its own period of reflection, distinct from the experience of drawing or painting.
We’re going to be exploring the discipline of photography from two angles - first, pictures as an embodiment of stillness, and then film as an embodiment of movement.
I’ll be sharing a video to explore this topic in more detail in the coming days; but at this moment what struck me the most was the moment of initiation: considering where we begin.
Writing this post, I realised anew how often I reach outward for inspiration before looking inward to my own experience. It’s a reflexive impulse - to search, to seek out a frame, to find the experts, and most of all, simply to fill the void that is inevitably opened by the existence of a question.
Those external influences have huge value.
Yet something is lost when we don’t take the moment first to check in with ourselves and identify our own experiences and ideas.
I gain so much more out of creative explorations when I first contextualise my own curiosity - considering what this calls up from my past, what preconceptions or areas of naivete might be colouring my view. How does this topic already operate in my life? What are my feelings about it? Where can I dig deeper? What opinions have I already uncovered simply through the process of living?
There is always something there - and the results can be surprising. They sometimes show me that the stories I am attached to are blinding me to deeper truths. And other times reveal that I know more than I realised.
By looking inward first, we become so much better prepared to receive wisdom from outside ourselves - and most importantly, we won’t miss the hidden knowledge that already exists within.
As we embark on exploring this new discipline, I’d invite you to just notice how photography works in your own life.
Where do you reach for the camera?
Where do you shy away?
What photographs are burned in your memory?
What do you think should never be photographed?
What is your impression of photography is an art?
Where do you see your relationship to it?
It’s enough to carry these questions with us and let them reveal themselves. While dedicated time for journalling and thinking has huge value, insights can also crop up at the most unexpected moments - when our subconscious mind gets the chance to bubble to the surface, unimpeded by direct focus.
Whether we realise it or not, we are pioneers.
Photography was invented around 1826 according to google - this is a comparatively new art. (Compare this to sculpture, which dates back tens of thousands of years.)
It’s quite exciting to be part of the story with an art form that is in many ways still so young. As we participate in it, we are also shaping it - with every photo we snap of a really good meal, a beautiful sunset, or a child sleeping with arms splayed.
In these moments, we are determining what deserves to have attention paid.
And the best place to start in understanding the significance of this, is with ourselves.
For now,
Alli