REFLECTION on “(always) learning to see” – one year on
This blog began with the objective of understanding better why I make photographic images. I suspect this question tickles the mind of most us after a while. Fantastically, one year on, I think I have found a good starting point for my own creative and photographic endeavors: I am interested in making work that responds to places that have touched me or moved me.
I have noticed that many of my more personally satisfying images arise from places that I have either camped in for a while or been slowed down by. Some places seem to speak to you or maybe I listen more when they quieten me. They have a sense of timelessness and intimacy.
Antarctica is the recent example. Wild, timeless nature whose openness contains and stills. A place that reached in and grabbed my heart so that I suddenly saw my heart in its hand and prayed it would not crush it, not too much anyway. And then, relief in the realization that this place is not all that concerned with me. In fact, not at all concerned since it is engaged with far weightier things. It feels so good not mattering in that way.
My starting point is therefore, to make works that attempt to honour the places that move my spirit and, perhaps, in some talismanic way, invite my imagination (and the imagination of a few others) to be in communion with Place. Not a unique goal but bound to keep me usefully occupied for a while. If I look at my work from recent years it is very clear that this has been my project all along, but it has taken a year of reflection using the blog for this to become clear.
Not all such Places are ‘raw’ nature. Bhutan, old Kashgar and, yes, Paris all fit within this project as well. There is also a parallel project that acknowledges images of People of Presence. If I winnow out the images that I don’t really care about, I seem to be left with these two: Place & Person.
What will all this mean for the next year of creativity?
I am cautiously using the phrases Spirit of Place and People of Presence. You will understand my caution: ‘Spirit’ invites entanglement with religion and worse and ‘Presence’ invites entanglement with the disease of celebrity. Think of it as a working title for now.
As some sort of enactment of this new understanding I have combined two of my websites into one robertvankoesveld.com. The blog remains separate. I am also experimenting with making transparent the word ‘(always)’ on the blog title; it’s been there in my mind from the beginning. One is obviously ‘always learning to see’; as Ursula LeGuin says - ‘one is always coming home’.
I have also made myself some mental signposts at the trail head. Picture the usual messages:
‘Leave only footprints, take (make) only pictures’ & ‘Remember to carry plenty of water’. Now I have added for myself:
‘The work can take many forms’
Print, book, multimedia, website, collage are possible. My collaboration with Libby on ‘the book’ (more about that closer to publication) has certainly confirmed how images that range from detail, portrait, grab shots and landscapes through to impressionistic can combine with words to produce a very worthwhile overall narrative given time and good design assistance and support. I have begun to realize that the print on the wall is just one of many possible ways images can tell a story and will keep experimenting with a range of forms.
‘You are a maker, not a business’
Perhaps because I have already had one profession, I now realize that I don’t aspire to being a ‘professional’ (commercial) photographer. This should help me be less tempted by attempting all options as a photographer or of being too concerned about advice and trends flowing from articulate commercial photographers. Perhaps I can enjoy the freedom to make creative works without a commercial imperative and the associated fashions. I remain clear (in a friend’s words) that I do want to make good work. This lack of commercial goals also frees me from the copyright and editorial misuse issues that are concerns right now in the photographic blogosphere.
A brief comment about process.
This blog has kept me looking at my own images and many, many images made by others. I typically follow about 30 other blogs as well as another 30 or so on tumblr. They in turn direct me to more. I also have been reading books and journals, a lot. So the emerging broad clarity comes from a process of reflection and winnowing. It has been good to reflect on what touches me or moves me in my own and in others’ images. There are lots of things that interest me, I am always curious about technique and other subjects, but interest is not enough I think.
As you can probably tell I am quite chuffed with how I am going with ‘learning (how, why, what) to see’ and hope the next year will be as productive.
