Ever wonder why Ansel Adams best work was all done before he reached the age of 48? Why so many poets write masterpieces in their youth, but only dreck for the rest of their life? Why Picasso painted ‘blue’ for a particular period and then … no more blue? Why the old photojournalist saw, ”F8 and be there” is so totally wrong?
Try this thought experiment. Suppose you, a photographer, have some place in your house which is lit only by artificial light and which never changes. A perfectly fixed, unchanging place. Light and objects remain the same year after year. You pass by this place all the time. Then one day, you see, recognize, find, capture … use your verb of choice … a great photograph of this fixed location. Why did you never see it before? Now, more time passes and again, suddenly, one day, you see and make another picture of this place. Picture #2. Suppose this happens four times over a long period of time.
Does this mean that you are developing your ‘eye’? That you are becoming sensitized to more and more things? Or, on the contrary, does it simply mean that you are changing; that you are different over time and so, what you see is different. Not better. Different. Can you still see all four pictures or do you now only respond to, recognize, see, the fourth? The first three are no longer apparent, attractive, meaningful to you. Which is to say, “F8 and be there” will only get you one of the four pictures, not all four. You can be there with all skills and equipment, but you will only see the one that you are ‘ready’ for.
If you conceive of your brain as a sort of dilating pupil, becoming ever bigger and more receptive/perceptive as you age and gain experience, then you will believe that your abilities accumulate, not replace. But if you conceive of your brain as a sort of focal-plane shutter, a slit in the curtain, exposing only one passing sliver of life at any given time, then Adams, Wordsworth, Picasso, and everybody else who sees one sort or type of thing at one time of his/her life, but can’t see that same thing, later — will make perfect sense. I believe the evidence supports this latter view.
Your root brain, your reptilian, primal, boiler-room ‘gatekeeper’ moves the slit in the curtain of your consciousness — for better or for worse. If you want to make great photographs, you have to hope you are not only trained and awake, and in the right ‘out-there’ place, but that your brain-shutter is also in the right place.
-Julie
May I express my partial disagreement with a question: Can you guess the age of an artist by looking at his/her latest portfolio?
Comment by Bülent Celasun — February 24, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
Yes, but you’ll have to explain.
-edited to add, I mean, “Yes” you can ask the question, not “yes” in answer to that question — which I don’t understand.
-Julie
Comment by unrealnature — February 24, 2008 @ 2:18 pm
Well, the first line of your blog (Ever wonder why Ansel Adams best work was all done before he reached the age of 48?)implies that “young age” can be a determining factor of the quality of an artist’s works. Towards the end,I feel that you are in fact talking about “a state of mind”, not necessarily becoming worse with age. I believe, the age of the artist can effect the nature of his/her works but not necessarily the quality (in a positive sense) of them… If age was a determining factor, one can spot the “better portfolio” as a product of the younger period… Perhaps, I have misunderstood your “intent” :)
Comment by Bulent — February 25, 2008 @ 3:38 am
I can see where you would get that impression, though it’s not what I meant. I’m saying that one ONLY sees certain things or in certain ways at any given time, old or young. That in old age you can’t make the pictures that you made/saw in your youth and vice versa. The reason I don’t think this is just a matter of natural changes in outlook as one ages, is that Adams literally could not make much of anything after 48 and it bothered the heck out of him. Writers are notorious for having spells during which they write masterpieces, but nothing before or after that.
Just for you, I shall beat the dead horse of “intent” again in the near future.
-Julie
Comment by unrealnature — February 25, 2008 @ 6:58 am