Restless frustration and discontent… that is how I often feel about my photography.
I suspect I will always feel discontent with the photographs I create.
At each capture of an image, and at each stage of my workflow, I sit in judgement on my work with a ruth-less-ness which ensures that my photographs are never good enough.
Picking faults and comparing my photography with the greatest of images that generations of great photographers have produced, my photographs are always left wanting.
As I work at crafting a photograph I ponder many things; composition, light, exposure, story, tonal values, subject, complexity of elements, compelling engagement, texture, a touch of theatre, expression, detail, grain, elegance and class, saturation of colour, graphic balance, emotion, an iconic tone of voice… and a hundred other criteria which swirl through my mind.
Restless creative energy, craftsmanship and passion come face to face with each of the my photographs as I try and produce the best I am capable of.
Does this sound too harsh a process of creation and judgement? Perhaps it is, but it serves a purpose. I understand the benefits such a process can offer and I have learned to live with its positivity, in a positive way.
In my early years as a landscape photographer this restless discontent and frustration wore on me and wore me down.
As I gain experience I am learning to detach my personal feelings from my workflow. The restlessness continues but now I see it as a friend and ally which can be harnessed to help me on my journey. In just four years this restless frustration has pushed me forward to a place where I am now happy but not content. And that is a good place to be.
I don’t know why I have a need to create or why photography is the outlet for my creation. I don’t know why my need to create includes such restless creative energy and such passion to craft quality, but it does.
Perhaps you share this frustration, this burning desire to create great photography. If you do then don’t let it embarrass you. Don’t let it wear you down. And don’t give up on it by settling for the mediocre. Embrace it and use it. Enjoy it and let it push your forward.
Last week I felt I made a breakthrough in my photography. I was wandering the sand dunes at Hawks Nest north of Sydney. I felt relaxed and confident with my camera. No performance anxiety or frustration that the light or elements were not just right.
I felt that what ever conditions I met I could draw out of this environment some strong photographs. I felt that I had a vision and that I could manage my camera to capture what I needed. I felt I had evolved one next step as a photographer.
You can see my ‘sand dunes’ series here: http://www.lightinframe.com
Production notes: All images are captured on traditional photographic film unless stated. Each film transparency or negative is hi-resolution scanned to a file size of approximately 400MB. It is then cleaned of any dust due to scanning and is colour balanced through a digital darkroom workflow to produce a hero file of a approximately 800MB to 1GB in size. Through this process each image retains all its wonderful photographic grain, character and depth of colour and / or tone for which photographic film is famous.
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© Copyright 2010 – 2012 Steve Coleman. All rights retained. All images and writings are registered with the United States Copyright Office. Unauthorised reproduction or use of these images is strictly forbidden without the written permission of Steve Coleman. Sharing of this link in social media and blogs is granted if you have a link back to this blog.
