Would I See It Today? « Blindeyephoto’s Weblog

Would I See It Today?

18Nov08

Once upon a time, I studied Tae Kwon Do. I have a theory that when someone started learning martial arts their natural ability to defend themselves took a precipitous drop. For a period of time, as you become aware of some of the fundamentals of martial arts you begin training your instincts and reflexes to cause you to respond differently. If someone were to throw a punch, you might think you needed to use one of your shiny new blocks rather than use the best defense available — get out of the way. The unfortunate part, is that because you’ve been learning to “fight” for a couple of months, you actually think you know something. Thus the yellow belt will probably have more trouble defending himself than someone who never took lesson one. A little knowledge can be dangerous.

In all things artistic, when you first start experimenting, the rules don’t exist. Blurry, overexposed, hyper-contrasty, and poorly framed images possess a wide range of creative details. They look cool, because they are different from how you normally see. Once upon a time the totally mundane was incredibly interesting as long as I had a camera in my hand. As I was learning to shoot, there was the constant discovery of seeing things from new angles for the first time. Slowly, the revelations became fewer and farther between as I learned the rules.

I suspect there is a whole catalog of art courses on the topic of how to see creatively. I haven’t taken those courses, so pardon me if I start sounding like master of the obvious. In many ways, creativity emerges as you break the rules. In the beginning, we break all of the rules out of ignorance — and we’re happy. As we learn the rules, we try to create images that follow them, and our work becomes well, boring.

One of my favorite photographic discoveries came on the website Etsy. The highest priced photograph, “valued” at $60,000 is a shot some guy took of half of his face with his cell phone. I’m not sure if he’s being artistic or just entrepreneurial.

Maybe I should go one better with a $70K image of the proverbial study of a polar bear in a snowstorm.

Anyway, here are a few old images from my days of not knowing all of the rules.