I used to be a member of the local photography club. At the end of each meeting, we could share photos that we had taken. The group had recently gone on a photography club outing taking photos of landscapes and other iconic Colorado locations. Near the end of the meeting, a woman, who had recently joined the photo club, put her pictures on the digital projector. She had no formal photography knowledge and just took pictures of what inspired her. She did not know enough yet to only take the standard mountain landscape photo. In my opinion, her pictures were the best ones of the night. They were purely pictures of what inspired her, and were not the heavily Photoshopped landscapes you can buy at any souvenir shop. They did not meet any technical standards of photography — yet I found them amazing.
I think I was the only one who thought her work was good. To me, she was viewing the world with amazement, through her camera, similar to when a child sees the world the first time.
Unfortunately, people seem to lose this natural amazement and curiosity soon after becoming an adult.
I like film photography because a hand-printed photo is deliberate creation — not instant gratification. In the age of digital media, short sentences, quick jingles and flashy refined images are the new normal. I miss slow deliberate creativity. Social media, advertisements, and other works of instant gratification are reprogramming our human brains to be incapable of getting reward from reading a long book or watching a three-hour documentary. Researching a story or spending a week at a spot before taking a picture may make a better story or a nicer picture, but more importantly the person creating it has added a value for their work by putting the time in.
Today the internet is full of blogs talking about lunch or quickly captured photos on Instagram. While some is intentional art… most of it is boring and uninspired.
I wrote this little story in my head, the other morning, while I was talking to Daily Post editor Bill Hudson over coffee at Higher Grounds Coffee Shop. I was just being my normal self, when I just started babbling about some random topics in my head.
While we were talking, this little story was going through my head, which is something I cannot stop myself from doing. I had intended to write an actual story for the Daily Post last week, but — like most of the time, when I try to write stuff — I get a random story topic in my head that has little to do with what I intended to write about.
I’ve been reading the Daily Post since about the time Bill started publishing it for public consumption. (I seem to remember a short lived print edition as well.) I’m sure that Bill, like other people who write, would have liked it to have been able to make it a highly successful commercial venture, but that’s not how things turned out. I think we all gauge the worth of our creativity by how much others are willing to spend on our work.
We live in a society where success of an idea is gauged in a good part by how much money it generates.
One thing evident in Bill’s editorials is that he writes about the topics he personally cares about. While I don’t know how much money the Pagosa Daily Post brings in, I am sure it has a relatively small return compared to his investment in time. I would argue that people who create and continue to express themselves produce a result that’s more valuable than canned writing more tailored to sell ads, or written to avoid the truth so that everyone ‘likes’ what is written. Being true to your dreams and your beliefs is far more important than money or fame.
As I was talking to Bill over coffee, I am sure my thoughts seemed pretty random. I have always told stories in a weirdly ‘disconnected’ manner, as I believe that there are many unseen connections in every story. One of my favorite shows was James Burke in the history series called “Connections”, which told stories not just of one particular historical fact but expanded to cover the connections that made that historical event possible. In many ways I feel writing, photography and art in general are best expressed when these connections are elaborated on. Nothing in this world is created in a vacuum. Every idea or creative expression is a rerun of previous ideas and concepts that have been influenced by the works of others. No one creates in a void, but aggregates pieces from outside influences.
As I finished up talking to Bill I was working out how I want to express what is in my head I think a mix of telling a story with photography and words may be the path that will work for me. I cannot draw with a pencil but I can draw with silver and light. It’s very possible no one else will ever think my creative expression is worth the materials used to create it. The more I talk with Bill the more I think that does not matter. I think the Pagosa Daily Post is an example of putting your heart into something that expresses your creativity regardless if it is popular or makes money. One thing I know whether you agree with what he writes or not, Bill puts his heart into the Daily Post and ultimately, if that fulfills his desire to create, that’s what really matters. I suspect Bill has a decent-sized readership and I think an alternative media outlet is valuable to the community.
I may actually start writing and doing photography more… not to please others, but to allow me a creative outlet. I need to stop worrying about what others think about what I write, or if my photos are any good. Ultimately, the person I need to make happy is myself.
Normally I would just wait an hour and let the story fade in my head, never to see the light of day. This time around, things turned out differently.
Anyway, this essay is what I got out of a random conversation over coffee the other morning. Art and creative expression should spark debate, discussion, or controversy. There’s little point of creative expression that triggers no emotional response.