Musing January 2015
End-of-the-year musings…
Isaac Newton, in a letter dated 1676, said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. This statement should serve to humble us all, no matter our vocation or avocation. Not one of us creates anything completely new or original. Everything we do is based on the work of those who came before. I often hear photographers and other artists say they don’t want to look at someone else’s work, as they believe it will influence and affect their own work and creativity. In truth, everything that has been photographed, painted, sculpted, drawn, filmed etc. is already stamped into our culture. We are influenced from everything around us and this is reflected in all art. We can be inspired, motivated, taught, humbled, experience a myriad of emotions by the work of others but we cannot (and should not) hide from it. Given this, it only makes sense to be curious, to learn something about both the history of and the current work being made in your chosen medium. It doesn’t matter whether is your vocation or avocation. We all need to inform ourselves so we can take our work to a higher standard, and just maybe, add to the mountain of knowledge upon which we stand.
In my first photography class we spent the first week learning the 100 photographers and photographs found in John Szarkowski’s Looking At Photographs. This was required before we were ever allowed to touch a camera. This introduction to photography through history forced me to understand that there were giants upon whose shoulders I would be standing upon every time I made a photograph. This foundation has served me well. In 1976, photography was a sideline, an extra class I picked up because it sounded interesting. I never expected it would become my vocation, avocation, and passion. I never dreamed that photography would take me literally around the world. Thirty-eight years later, it still excites me and informs the way I experience the world.
Black and white photography was king in 1976 while color photographs as art were far less common, and the historic processes just beginning to come back into use again. Today, photographs can be made in virtually any photographic style or process known to us. At the same time that beautiful daguerreotypes and tintypes are being made, people are creating books from images made on their cell phones. Photographs live on the web and in digital media as much as they live on the printed page and gallery walls. No matter the process, from wet plate to cyanotype, platinum palladium to traditional zone system black and white, digital color to cell phone magic we are all adding to the mountain of information and experience that we as photographers share. What is new, what is unique, is the same as it has always been: How we see what we are looking at and how we share what we see and feel. And this is where our creativity is truly expressed.
Munch, chew, swallow, munch, chew, swallow… Ah, what you hear is the sound of me eating my words. Those of you who have read my “Musings” for years know that I dismissed Facebook for, what I felt were, many good reasons. There were and still are many negatives to Facebook but this year I decided to use it for one purpose: to get the word out to a larger audience on what I was doing and where I am doing it.
The world has changed tremendously in the past few years, not to mention the decades since I went to college (as my sons frequently remind me). However, the use of Facebook has changed faster than the nature of college over nearly forty years. Facebook has become one of the best word-of-mouth advertising mediums in the world. As photography magazine circulation declined, the magazines themselves died. Meanwhile, the numbers of photography workshops has multiplied and the number of working artist photographers has exploded. How do we get the word out about what we are doing to a wider audience?
Facebook may be a way for me to reach a greater number of people about my work and the workshops I am leading. I am posting twice a week on the Tillman Crane Photography Facebook page. I post an image or two, speak briefly about what I am up to and if I am on a workshop perhaps share a few images of what we are doing on location. If you want to chat with me personally, the best way is still through email. You can get the email address on our website.
As an ever growing number of businesses are saying, “like” us on Facebook. Please share your interest with others you know interested in photography workshops and all things related to photography.
Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2015!
Tillman