duality
It’s something I’ve wondered about for some time, whether we can have a split down the middle of our personality and have two completely different approaches to things.
I was turned off the idea of going pro pretty early on, with the notion that if you”’re being paid, you have to produce what the client wants, rather than what you feel like shooting on that particular day/week/month/year. I can think of nothing that turns me off quicker than trying to produce something to order. SoFoBoMo was a test in that respect… my original idea fell completely flat on it’s face and I had to abandon it completely and let things run their own course. I had another taste of it this week when I went up to the botanic gardens in anticipation of a little public expo thing we’ve got coming up (People’s Photography) and wanted some more flower stuff for the front of cards – it felt good. Today I took my camera out at lunchtime and disovered some more awful architecture around Dublin city centre, as well as some blue plastic sheeting up in a new shop window, and it felt good, in another way. But the resulting images are so far apart that people could be forgiven for thinking they were by two different photographers.
Can you go on for very long without going crazy with dual (and sometimes conflicting) aspects of your personality pulling you in two different directions? Can you do the stuff that people want you to do, and the stuff to please yourself, and not be torn down the middle?
one of my tutors said to me last year that this photography/art lark is all about the relationship between you and the world. being an ex-software engineer i immediately thought about the flow across that relationship and recognized that i practice two types of photography according to that flow.
in some cases, the flow is from the world to me. something catches my eye and says, shoot me! this is the case where the picture takes me.
on other cases, the flow is from me to the world. i have something in my head (emotionally rather than pictorially) and i wander around with my camera until i see something that re-presents it for me. this is the case where i take the picture.
there is no conflict between the two types of picture – your own personal aesthetic will still inform both of them – there’s just a difference in the flow across that relationship.
Welcome to the world of a Gemini. Welcome to my world. Sounds like you have hit the stage of knowing thy self. Eventually you will get to the stage of accepting thy self. Frustrating part is that everyone hits those states at different rates, if at all.
[…] that others can give you, you have to discover your own right answer. Sometimes that includes the duality or multiplicity of answers (see previous comment about Gemini). This isn’t a bad thing […]
[…] that others can give you, you have to discover your own right answer. Sometimes that includes the duality or multiplicity of answers (see previous comment about Gemini). This isn’t a bad thing […]
I know I have two modes of operating which I have also observed in others. The modes are “Do” and “Think”. Composing the shot and clicking the shutter are “Do” mode operations while figuring out what you are looking at or what you might want to portray in the shot are “Think” mode operations. The big problem is switching between the two mode, it takes time.
One of the best photo tools for me, is a chair much more useful than a tripod. lets me switch modes and do some thinking then back to “Do”.