I just had an idea I thought I would share after buying a new photobook by Joel Sternfeld. It’s messy.
“The faster I try to go, the slower, I get great pictures.” Take your time and slow down. Henri Cartier-Bresson said “that things made with time, time respects.” I think that this applies in so many areas but even photographic study. Here are 3 examples:
If I walk somewhere with my camera I get a lot of good shots but if I drive I get considerably less. Our brains process visually at the speed of walking, not of driving. SLOW DOWN.
Joel Sternfeld supposedly took 30 years to make his “Stranger Passing” book. I can’t get over that. How amazing is it that people today, driven by social media, think a project can be completed in 3 months. I do this to myself.
I shot a wedding once and shot about 1600 images in 4 hours. That is almost 7 pictures a minute. The big takeaway? I had very few keepers. Now this isn’t a strict scientific study because I had never shot a wedding before so that was also a factor. I can’t help but think that my strategy of spraying and praying was just plain fear and it forced me into a creative corner. Now fast forward to today and some of the old film cameras I am shooting for the North Country Project. I should medium format cameras which have about 8-10 images per roll. I shoot one roll per Sunday. This intentional limiting and slowing of the process has forced me to see and work so differently that I am seeing huge benefits in my seeing and also in what I don’t shoot. That is huge.
-Chris
