one and done
This was the view as I departed from Port Townsend following ART and a week working with half of the Rear Curtain crew, Ray Ketcham and Stuart Sipahigil. PT is a magical place where I feel more at home than I have anywhere else. More than just the seaside air and being surrounded by art and artists, it really is where my heart is. People have asked about taking ART on the road and I hesitate to try to take the experience of ART out of Port Townsend, mostly because I don’t think in its current incarnation, it can be replicated. The reality is what makes ART so special is not the place but the people who come to spend three days doing nothing but exploring photography through a conversation with others who are on the same kind of journey. Following ART last year, I wondered if we could create another experience that would allow people to be transformed in a similar way that the first round table did. I think we’ve succeeded but you need to ask those that were there if they experienced the magic. All I know is that I felt it.
When we started receiving expressions of interest for ART 2012, we realized that we would have a difficult decision to make. Most applicants felt they should be in the second conversation “Raising Your Voice” but Ray was pretty sure that most of us still do not fully understand the vision and our voice for the work we want to do and on the first day, that became very clear to me too. In April the decision was made to go forward with “Raising Your Voice” and to facilitate the conversation fully knowing that we may need to move in and out of a discussion on vision and voice as needed. I won’t say much about that discussion in this post only to say that it seems to me the idea of vision is not understood and the word itself has become as diluted today as the concept of visual storytelling. You can see results of this all over the internet on sharing sites and blogs.
There were a number of other things I took away from ART this year, ideas that I am going to reflect on and spend the next little while exploring. One of the aspects of ART that I haven’t seen done anywhere else is how deep we go to understand the work we are making. This is by design and there is nothing left to chance with respect to the way the days are structured. Of course we do go off track and have to improvise but overall the things Ray and I set out to accomplish are driving the conversation from start to finish.
We asked people to submit 10 to 12 non-workshop images that reflected their voice. Ray studied these images along with others that were on their blogs and sharing sites to see what was omitted. He then spent an entire day focused on discussing our work with us all. In fact we continued to explore parts of everyone’s work throughout the three days even discussing it with an audience of people who were not photographers. One of the ideas that came from living with our work in this way is the notion of “one and done”. When Ray came up with that zinger, a piece fell into place for me.
You might recall a previous post where I talked about making sketches. I know now the images I made were not quite where I wanted them to be content-wise and that is not the same as others have suggested where you work a situation by changing your focal length, point of view, etc in order to create a better photograph through a different composition. I also realized why I am bored with over-processed images and the constant use of filters. If an image is void of content, no amount of effort to make it look pretty will hold my attention. I’m not averse to post-processing though and for this I can point to the work of one of the participants who does HDR. In his images the processing supports the content and I am not distracted by the processing when I go to explore the images.
The notion of “one and done” came from discussing an image that the photographer–and others–felt was rather good at expressing what he wanted to communicate, that was until Ray posed the question: “how do you know you’ve made the best image you can if you stop there?” All too often I think people stop before they should and their work falls short of having any lasting impact with the viewer. Intuitively some photographers do realize this and they have created collections of the same subject matter. And yet again I feel some miss the mark. Having 20 images of a particular subject matter in different light or form doesn’t necessarily mean you have a vision for the work. In a few cases, the work is repetitive and the photographer is essentially photographing the same subject matter multiple times.
This brings me to my next point. Sometimes even though we aren’t “done”, we still share the work. For a while now, I’ve started to drift away from the idea of sharing images I make that are part of a project. There are days when I think about the value of sharing about my process when it comes to my projects and I want to blog about it or post an image. Plus I feel a bit of pressure to blog more frequently and to share the images I am making. It’s a fine balance I think we have to each answer for ourselves especially as we have received advice that we should share only our best work. One of the key reasons why I share on this blog is because I feel I am part of a community where I can learn from others and hopefully they can learn from what I’m doing. Being in a community of artists is important and it’s part of the reason why we started ART. We all need a place where we feel safe to share our work before it’s fully formed. I just don’t believe the internet is the place for the kind of deep conversation we crave and need. It goes beyond getting a bunch of Likes or “nice shot” from our family and even our photographic peers and heroes. We need people we trust to look at our work with a critical eye and to ask us questions that move us forward.
For me, Ray is that person along with a couple of other people who I may consult. It’s as Ray has said, you need to listen to one voice (other than the voices in your own head) when it comes to your work. Pimping out your images to others for validation is a sure way to stay in a state of inertia and to create generic work. My language is a rather strong here and I guess underneath is my frustration with what I’ve been seeing for far too long. What I want to see is more thoughtful work. Images that aren’t framed by a nice PhotoShop mat and pitched to me as a piece of art. I want to be inspired by the ideas behind the work, to revel in the questions posed by the work, and to engage with the work and its maker. I want to be somewhere near the water, to sit on a comfy chair with a piece of the world’s best carrot cake, and to talk to you about your work, what it means to you and what it can mean to the world. That’s ART.
For a few other views on ART 2012, check out these posts from Jacob Lucas, Daniel Gregory, Ken Udle, Dorothy Brown and Brian Miller.
Sabrina on 
Well said Sabrina and my hat is off to those who were brave enough to weather the storm that ART can be at times. It is always my hope that the time at ART causes some sleepless nights for all involved and it sure has for me again this year.
Kudos definitely need to go to the participants who were willing to share so much of themselves to make ART what it was. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of people at the table!
Oh, I so agree with everything you have said Sabrina! I think the word ‘Vision’and ‘Voice’ is used so much these days it becomes watered down and not understood. Most images posted online I will look at and just think, ‘yeah, that’s nice’, ‘that’s pretty cool’, etc. I ‘Like’ many of them too. But rarely do I have one just jump out at me and make me stop in my tracks to look at it more closely. The internet community is not always the best place for affirmation or critique. You have given me a lot to think about in this post. Sounds like ART 2012 was a success and that makes me smile! Now… off to read the other three posts…
Thanks Sue. I really wish you had been there and I am going to insist that you are the next time around. Remember the days when we put our images out there for critique and some of the comments we got back? Like when the instructor took it upon himself to “improve” your image? I’ll never forget that!
“One of the aspects of ART that I haven’t seen done anywhere else is how deep we go to understand the work we are making.”
This is where I am currently at. I spend half my time wondering what I am doing and the other half wondering why I bother. I read, I write, I photograph, but I still can’t get a handle on what I am doing.
Thank you Sabrina for sharing your thoughts.
I think it’s quite ok to be in the space of unknowing, Heather. It’s a good place for reflection and reaching inside to figure out what we are really meant to do. If truth be told, most people left ART with more questions than answers and that’s the way we like it
Sounds like you had a thoroughly stimulating time at ART 2012. For various reasons my camera has been gathering dust in recent weeks after I realised I was just taking pictures to post on my blog and I wasn’t finding that satisfying. I am however looking forward to my upcoming trip when I intend to throw myself behind the camera as I travel and find new experiences and places. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
I did, Julie. There are a few ideas still rolling around in my head and I’ll share them as I figure them out a bit more. I do like how you’ve said that you did not find the process of making images just to post on your blog satisfying. To me that is an indication of something brewing for you. New experiences are probably just around the corner for you AND I know a place where you can share it
Fingers crossed for my chance to participate next year! (I will give my family strict instructions about no weddings, no babies etc!!).
The ‘vision’ and ‘voice’ thing is interesting, and I think for me even if it isn’t fully understood (and I plead guilty to THAT!) actually thinking about having a vision and voice is a step forward on the photographic journey. It takes us beyond ‘just taking photos’ – happy snapping. For me it has made me think about the ‘why’ I am taking that image, the ‘what is my voice’ (and I find it hard to see, but I have others who tell me clearly what it is…) and made me more thoughtful about what I am doing and what I have done as I look back through my images. I now look more for meaning before I shoot, and look at the older images and start to see why I unconsciously wanted that particular image, even if at the time I hadn’t actually thought about it.
I think it is an important on-going conversation and process, but is at least started by the ‘pop psychology’ of it being out there. Definitely needs a deeper understanding though…
What I’ve noticed Deborah is that vision is interpreted very loosely but I recall a conversation you and I had where we tried to delve into it further. That showed me that you were thinking beyond the “why” that some people dabble in but that still results in “happy snaps”. We need to have a reason for the work we do if we want it to have meaning even if it’s just for ourselves. Wanting that doesn’t stop me from creating images that are more about making memories or enjoying the process. There is definitely a place for those kinds of images. I guess what I am frustrated with is when people read more in the work than what is really there. To me, art is art when it transforms rather than entertains. More to come, I think…
Sabrina you always do such a good job at capturing those key “take-away” ideas. This was my first ART and I hope to be able to attend the next one. It was so different and really wonderful to spend time with people who want to discuss art and photography at a level other than gear and techniques. In fact I don’t remember much talk at all about gear – other than my observation about Nikons in for repair.
Thanks also for the mention in your post.
These are such great things to think about. I am been thinking a lot about that question of validation of the work we create. I really like how you distilled that down to such a clear point. I think we all want real art that we can appeciate for the entire package of that has clarity of voice, vision, content and techique. It really is not just enough to reward the click away xerox images in mass duplication art. It is when we sit in that big comfy chair with a piece of carrot cake that we can finally sort out what matters to each of us in a real moment. And, it is in that moment we find the meaning of our own ART.