Busy not making masterpieces

"The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars."

I came across this quote (from "Art & Fear", Bayles and Orland) on the quotations page of auspiciousdragon.net. It points to an important piece of the motivation and process we engage in as imagemakers.

I photograph every day. I don’t go out with the intention of making a masterpiece every day. Most of what I do is process, not product. I do it to keep my eye limber, and to stay conscious of my ordinary, everyday rhythm and routine. I do it to remind myself that the special moments "worth" photographing occur only because you devote your attention to seeing them. Even when I’m working for a client and I have to come back with the goods, most of my shooting is not purposefully oriented to making that one final, stellar image. That comes about while I’m doing that other thing, exploring where I am visually and viscerally, with my camera. I know my process well enough that I'm confident, at the end of the day, there should be a shot good enough for my client to publish. Or for me to put up as the Photo of the Day.

I can take pretty good pictures most of the time. The really powerful ones, they’re gifts. I’m always amazed when I come upon that one photo I made that does soar way above the others. How did that happen? It is almost never an intentional act at the time. Sometimes I don’t even recognize it for awhile. It emerges out of the proof prints (if I’m working analog) or I have to be directed to it by the profound effect that an image seems to be happening on people who see it.

It is a mysterious, compelling process. I don’t need answers, but I do like that there’s so much about it I don’t know.

Comments

[David Adam Edelstein]

Our friend Cartier-Bresson, of course, would say that it happens because your head, your heart, and your eye are aligned.

Why it happens aside, it's always a gift to be savored.

[Eric Hancock]

Excellent quote (great book, too).

[Bill Nelson]

This is a great idea about photographing EVERY DAY and one I have been thinking implementing it in my daily schedule.

Tha accountability of a post to a daily photo blog is a great idea.