There’s a lot of talk these days about how much better analog tools are than digital, but when we rely on our tools to render soul and authenticity in our work, when the tools get either the credit or the blame, I think we’re heading in the wrong direction. Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly …
Navigating Fog
Any creative effort, in fact life itself, is undertaken in a context of uncertainty. But there are times things feel more uncertain than other, like we’re lacking direction. The Japanese concept of Ikigai provides helpful vectors or points of light, that make it easier to navigate in the fog. Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly …
Touch the Heart
Songwriter Leonard Cohen once asked “How do we produce work that touches the heart?” It’s a question I think we need to pursue if we’re going to make anything that finds traction or resonance, most especially for ourselves but for others. So how do we do it? Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided to begin posting my weekly podcast here …
How’s Your Balance?
Ask a photographer about balance and tension in a photograph and they’ll look at you like you just asked them about the mathematics of hyperfocal distance. Actually, that’s unfair; I know a number of photographers who could speak at length about the latter. I know fewer who can speak about the former. But ask a painter or sculptor the same …
Too Late?
If change is the one true constant in life and we’re subject to it as much as other things, why does it seem so hard to reinvent ourselves? Is it ever too late to evolve or start over, to move in new directions that are unexpected, to others, but often ourselves most of all? Let’s talk about it. I’ve decided …
What’s the Point
In the wake of the pandemic I recently heard an artist express words I suspect many of us are thinking about making and sharing our art: what’s the point? These thoughts have been haunting me. What’s the point? We are. You are. Life itself is the point and we (and you!) need your art-making more than ever. Let’s talk about …
Not The Boss of Me
Most of us learned early how to behave, how to blend in and do what we were told, but art-making and creativity is no place for obedience, most especially when the voices asking us to play nice are the ones on the inside, telling us to play nice and maintain the status quo. Rebellion for the sake of rebellion isn’t …
Getting to the Heart of the Photograph
Have you ever stood in front of something so beautiful it takes your breath away, or some moment so amazing that you think, “I couldn’t take a bad photograph of this if I tried!” only to, well, make a photograph that’s less than what you hoped for? I have hard drives full of images like these. And it’s not because …
Mud-Wrestling the Muse
You are only as good as your camera, and your ability to use it. That’s the prevailing idea of the popular photography world. You see it in the ads, you see it on the discussions online, it’s implied in every camera review. But if that were true, wouldn’t we all be so much better now? Our cameras have never been …
I Feel Like I’m Faking it. You?
Among the well-worn tropes within the creative world is this: fake it till you make it. We’ve all said it. Or thought it. Particularly when we feel like we don’t belong, like we have no idea what we’re doing, when we feel like everyone else has their creative shit together and we’re staring into the void hoping no one discovers …