A Commitment to Becoming: Back in Stride Again

Cuba 2015

Images from Cuba 2015

Images from Church

I am back at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for the senior year of my MFA degree in photography.  I took this summer off  from SCAD, took pictures of my summer travels and made images of the ministry at our church.  It was fun and it was in this off period that I could appreciate what I am learning at SCAD and what I am becoming.  It is hard for me to claim this but I will: I am becoming a professional photographer.  Well what is a professional photographer? 

True professionals have purpose behind the work they create; whether a photographer is fulfilling an assignment or producing art, the intention is guiding the work. The work is deliberate, the craft is honed, and the results are delivered. This work cycle is repeated with passion and persistence.

When I review this definition it reflects how I see my work.  I have a clear purpose and I am always working to achieve that purpose in my work as I am moved by the visual world.  I found this summer as I was “taking pictures for fun” that I was purposeful in my work and I couldn’t help but produce art.  The work is deliberate as I continue to work on my craft by making work, reading and following the artist who inspire me.  This isn’t a haphazard process but rather it is a routine that has become a habit that is developing me into a professional artist.

I am convinced that the key to becoming that thing you want to become you have commit to a continuos cycle that takes your game to the next level.  At the core this is about having clear purpose, a commitment to professionalism, professional development, honing your skill and  continuing to produce work and share it with the world.  When we go this process something happens to us, in us and through us.  We become that which we dreamt of.

While I am still dreaming of completing my MFA I am committed to the process.  I am progressing as the process does what it is intended to do.  As you look at yourself the question I put to you is the following:  What is the process you are engaged in that is taking you and your work to the next level?  What is your course professional development  and what is the end intended to be? Can you see what you are becoming?

You Can Change: Do the Work and the Work Will Create a New YOU!

Ricci de Forest - Curator and Artistic Director, Madame CJ Walker Museum

The journey of a long term project is overly rewarding.  It is rewarding because you see the changes in you and the very thing you are working on.  I have been working on a trans-media project on the revitalization of Auburn Avenue here in Atlanta Georgia for over two years now (it is a ten year project).  I have been a witness to the change that is in process along this street and it has been something to see.  I have also changed over time.  My photography and storytelling has improved along with my growing relationship with the people I am photographing.  To commit to something and stick with it has the power to change your life and perspective.  You can look back and see what you are becoming as you do the work because the work does something in you. I want to encourage you today to find that thing(s) and stick to it.

Life is a longterm project.  We live the lives we create.  We have to take care to nurture the type of life and relationship we want to make sure we spend our days doing those things we enjoy and that we were created to do.  The joy in life is rooted in our living a life that lines up with the gifts the creator put in us.  It is doing the very things that we do well and enjoy doing that will bring us joy.  To do and be that thing you enjoy takes courage and handwork.  I have never worked so hard than I have in the past two years being a student at fifty-three.  I completed my PhD in 1997...that is almost ten years ago and  I have not been a full-time for a long time.  While I have done tons of continuing education stuff none of it was as difficult and demanding as the MFA program at Savannah College of Art and Design.  While this journey has been and is challenging it has been one of the most rewarding times of my career.  I love every minute of it and I am becoming that artist that I know is in me.  It is so worth it!!!!  What is it that you need to work on in your life to be what the Creator wants you to be at this stage in your life?  Are you willing to put the work in to have the joy of doing you each and everyday?  What do you have to do in order to do what you want to do?

You can follow my project at:
http://www.faithinsweetauburn.org

What is it about you and your work that makes you UNIQUE?

I like to assign myself reading.  I love to read and a big part of my creative process is cerebral.  I have to wrap my mind around what it is I am trying to do.  While I read a lot I am very selective on who I read.  My reading is also complimented by my looking at the work of those who inspire me.  In the world of photography there is a group that I consider my mentors.  They don’t know me but I know there work. 

I work at finding those mentors and this comes from my reading and looking at images.  This summer quarter one of the books that I have assigned myself to read is Image Makers Image Takers by Anne-Celine Jaeger. The book “systematically examines what motivates and inspires today’s photographers and what makes them succeed. It reveals how the world’s leading photographers, from the field of art, documentary, fashion, advertising and portraiture, actually work, and explores what it is that picture editors, curators, gallerists, agency directors and publishers are looking for when they choose an image.”  From cover to cover this book is simply inspiring.  I have learned so much from the diverse voices and points of view in this book.  One voice that has spoken to me above the others has been Eugene Richards.

Eugene Richards is known for his compassion and his ability to confront difficult subject matter.  He, like me, is one of those photographers who likes to get close, no long lens for us.  When he talks about developing your style or personal way of seeing, he says, “In order to develop a personal way of seeing, you have to study the work of people, look at where you fit into your own society, and work to develop your own vision out of all of this.”  So the questions for us is who are you “studying”?  To study the work of an artist is to fully immerse yourself in their work and their life.  You have to know their story to understand and fully connect with their work.  As you study, where do you fit?  What is your story and how does your story inform your work?  What resources do you pull from inside of you that brings something new to the table?  We are not to copy our mentors but rather we are to extend the work and take it to the next level or point on the continuum.  Where are you and your work taking us?

Eugene Richards

Image Makers Image Takers

Change or Be Left Behind!

Stephen Mayes

“Although some changes are painful, we have a rare and privileged opportunity to challenge the conventions that have limited the understanding of photography, and to create new models of visual storytelling.”

Stephen Mayes

“Toward a New Documentary Expression” in Aperture 214, p, 33

Stephen Mayes pushes me to think about how I share the story I am trying to tell. The story of Sweet Auburn is a story rooted in history that is being propelled into the future.  The question we must raise is, “Will we forget?”  Mayes argues that we have to tell powerful stories and place in the context of where our people are comfortable (Flickr, Vine, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, blogosphere).  This means that we can no longer wait for people to find us but rather we must take our message to the people and find our audience.  While Mayes is referencing photography his message transcends photography.  Mayes is saying to us that the world has changed; we have to find away to live into this change and allow this changing time to change us.

The wonderful privileged time I live in, as a storyteller is that I don’t have to wait for a publication or broadcaster to pick up my story.  I can use the tools at my fingertips to tell my story.  Not only can I use the tools at my fingertips but I can also tell more dynamic stories by using a multi / mixed media approach to storytelling.  Moreover if I have the time I can spend time on my story and tell a story over time and not reduce it to a sound bite or single news / documentary story.  I embrace the times and challenge that Mayes lays out.  The question for you and us is are we embracing the changing times in your industry(s)?  How are you changing what you do to take what you do to the people? How will you allow the way the world has changed – change you so that you can hear and be heard?

Stephen Mayeshttp://www.stephenmayes.co

Aperturehttp://www.aperture.org

Take Time to Develop You!

Take the Time to Develop You! From Vision to Image

OK I am about to complete my first year of my MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Well, not really because the final term for the year just started and I am in week two of a ten week term but I can see the end.  The class I am taking this term is Digital Craft. It is a class that teaches you how to develop your images in the digital dark room.

What is interesting about this class that bookends this first year of my course work is that my very first class this year was focused on developing film and doing our work in the old skool darkroom.  I appreciate both the old skool process and this new skool process and what they have made me think about is how am I developing me?   Or how are you developing you?

To develop images old skool or new skool requires a lot of time.  You have to learn how to use all the tools at your disposal.  I think about what it takes to learn how to develop images in the dark room using chemicals or in Light Room (a software package) in both cases it is hard work.  You have to learn how to use the tools you have to get the image to look the way you see it.  It requires an artistic vision as you have to see what you want to develop before it is developed.  You have to see the image in your mind before it is developed or printed on paper.

Now, back to us.  What do you see in you? What is the image of you that you have in your mind that you needs to be developed in order to be printed?  Are you using the tools you have to produce the image of you that the creator had in mind when the creator framed you and composed you in your mother's womb?  Are you putting the work in to get the output?