wildframe

Photographers, like artists and parents are rumoured to have their favourite children and Arrival at Rocky Bay is certainly one of my favourites. Not because it’s technically one of my best photos (far from it) it only goes to around 18″ x 12″ but more on that and the lessons learned later. It is my favourite because every time I look at it I’m reminded of how my photography changed from the moment I made it.

All of my previous work involving beaches and bays has focussed outward i.e. inside the bay looking out. On this day, I was standing in the incoming surf trying to replicate a shot I’d done some weeks earlier with my Contax G2. After all, why do something new when you can waste film producing derivatives of your own work right–duh?

I don’t know what it was that made me turn around. Probably the dead photographers society all screaming in unison “TURN AROUND!!” and I did. In that single moment not only did I see the scene evolve before me but I learned a lesson about photography and on reflection about life or as Yoda would put it “That which is often behind you is what you seek” — I could never understand that guy.

Anyway, that moment of breaking away from my traditional approach was a watershed event that started me thinking how I might incorporate this whole Zen ‘turn-around’ thing into my conscious approach to photography?

I recalled reading something some years ago (read: too lazy to look it up) about the notion of ‘PO’ posited by Edward De Bono. Basically, if I recall correctly ‘PO’ translates roughly as the process of provocative thinking. In other words stepping outside rationlised notions of logic by deliberately positing opposites to the accepted ‘norm’. By engaging ‘PO’ we move from a process more aligned with producing derivative solutions to a process unfettered by preconditioning. [...if you read it 60 times it actually makes sense]

Let’s try that in english. If we were to ask the question: How do you take better photos? We could consider the words of Eliot Porter who said : “You learn to see by practice …like tennis you get better the more you play” or Henri Cartier-Bresson who said “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”. Perhaps tongue-in-cheek but we could be excused for thinking that the obvious solution to better photography lies in taking more photos. In point of fact the more is better approach to photography stands as conventional wisdom. However, PO style thinking could posit thus: The path to better photography lies in taking less photos. … now can you feel the Zen …not even a little Haiku moment? What if I said it in Yodish?

I guess at this stage I don’t intend to explore why the above proposition might be valid or in-valid. The exercise was only important to the extent it demonstrated how easy it is to invoke ‘PO’ i.e. think normally then posit the opposite or even the irrational. What really interests me is the value proposition of ‘PO’ as a doorway into creative consciousness and more importantly its practical application in everyday photography. …continued in Henri and the 10,000 monkeys (Part II).

~ by John Mackay on June 11, 2005.