“Taking good pictures is easy. Making very good pictures is difficult. Making great pictures is almost impossible.” -Constantine Manos
I’ve been in one of those in-between spaces, delirious on cold medication, looking over my photos and barely recognizing them or what the idea behind them was. I try to constantly reevaluate my own work and myself. Every now and then I get fan emails. These are terribly unhealthy things. I read them and say, great, time to go get a milkshake and wander around for the rest of the afternoon. Instead, I wish people would send me criticism emails.
I heard Carmina Burana a couple weeks back at the Boston Symphony and they were talking about Orff. After he wrote Carmina Burana he declared that all of his previous works were worthless and this was the first great thing he’d done– in his 40s. This is pretty instructive (not that I think I’ll throw all my work out at any point) but in this age of instant gratification it’s much more realistic to think about the reality that it may take decades to get to a point where you’re satisfied with anything you create. The point of every shoot isn’t necessarily about getting a good photo, but maybe just to open your eyes a little wider.