March 2009: 3 Rules of work

Dear Friends,

First, to each of you who responded to last month’s newsletter with such warmth and friendship, we thank you. We’re pretty sure that the content was never really meant for anyone other than ourselves but we felt great reassurance to hear that we were not alone in recognizing our need to take better care of our creative lives. So, how did your “one-hour of photographing” work out? Did you reward yourself with, perhaps a second hour, maybe even a third? Did the creative juices begin to flow like a river or was the experience more of a quiet trickle of possibility?

For myself I found it tough to get back to making a photograph. For the past several months Donna and I have been concentrating on getting ODIN STONE out and then immediately editing and sequencing the next book on the Jordan River (Utah). I’ve been focused on making finished prints rather than creating new images. So it took monumental effort for me to set up the camera and make an image in my own backyard. However, after getting the gear out the backdoor, I was so fired up I put everything in the car and went further a field. Rather than shooting a few new images in an hour I ended up making almost 25 new images over the course of the morning. Overcoming the inertia was tough but worth the effort.

I have just returned from a week in Utah, with my son Jacob. It was a week of work and pleasure blended together. I really enjoyed my one-on-one time skiing, hanging out and visiting places of interest to him. He’s coming up on 15 this spring and in a short time such a trip probably won’t be very desirable to him so I am thankful for the gift of time we were able to share. My time at the Waterford School has come to an end as the program changes to a smaller, digital curriculum. I am blessed to have had the opportunity of so many years working with the staff and students at the school and will miss, most of all, seeing the friends I’ve made along the way. However, the program is in good hands and a door will open to other opportunities.

I took the layout of the Jordan River book to meetings with the Salt Lake City Arts Center and Center for Documentary Arts. Hard to believe we’re already at this stage for the next book. We’ve hardly cleaned up the cyclone that blew through here with the production of ODIN STONE and already talking presses and essay and colophons! It reminds us of Albert Einstein’s three rules of work:

1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord, find harmony.
3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Out of clutter, find simplicity. One of our best friends, a single mom whose daughter left for college in January, is de-cluttering the house she’s lived in for 18 years, readying it for sale. At first the task seemed overwhelming, fraught with emotional mind fields. She found that by starting each day with just one box, in one room, that she was able to reduce the work to a more manageable task. We have to take a similar approach to this new book. It’s easy enough to get overwhelmed by the details, the financial risks, the limited space to spread out the new piles or to put away the piles left from ODIN STONE. A deep breathe (or two or three), an empty box, a single room. Eliminating the clutter, one pile at a time.

From discord, find harmony. This is a natural enough desire for most of us. Sometimes, however, the energy of discord breeds more discord, and that keeps us from hearing or seeing or acting in harmony with our surroundings or with those around us. (Not that there’s ever any discord with a couple working, raising kids and living together!) Sometimes making that step from discord to harmony is as simple as taking a deep breath and not speaking. Other times it requires taking the time to do something for ourselves. For me, that can be taking the camera out into the backyard and making an image. For Donna it can be going into her own studio or taking a walk with a friend. As adults we’ve all learned what activities calm and redirect us and which ones don’t serve to do so. Giving ourselves permission to do the activities that serve us best is often the problem. For this next month let’s run the experiment of giving ourselves permission to work towards the harmony, thereby decreasing the focus on the discord in our lives.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Difficult economic times don’t on the surface seem to be full of opportunity. Below the surface, however, as in every human being, lies great possibility for resourcefulness, compassion, and creativity. Focus not on what’s been lost or taken away, but rather on what you do have and what you can do. Take some time to look through those old photography magazines gathering dust on your shelf and see if someone else’s work sparks an idea for an image of your own. Come at your subject from a different angle, a different perspective than you usually work from. Use a different lens or aperture. Move the light or shoot at a different time of day. For a moment, step out of your comfort zone. If you are a still life photographer, go outside and be a street photographer. If you are a landscape photographer, make a portrait of someone you don’t know very well or at all. Observe what feelings this action brings forth. What differences do you notice in these photographs? What opportunities do these changes make possible?

We hope you all have a great month exploring, as the days begin to get noticeably lighter!

Tillman and Donna