"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst" Henri Cartier-Bresson
I heard a great story about photography that i wanted to share with you. I heard it from Thea while we were both standing around at the final Barn House sale of the season on Saturday. Thea is a classically trained photographer. She gained her foundation of knowledge with years of study in classrooms at the University of Oregon, endless training in the darkroom and hours and hours of practice in the field. She knows the zone system developed by Ansel Adams, understands theories of design and by the end of her education created a body of work to demonstrate her development as an artist.
I was blathering on about discovering my passion for photography late in life. (I had just read a quote by some famous person who said "start 'em as young as you can") In response she told the story of the long sought photograph of a landscape scene in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by her photography professor Terry Warpinski. Thea was fortunate enough to be traveling with her mentor on the day that the illusive photograph was finally captured.
Thea was eloquent in her description of what i saw to be a personal pilgrimage of artistic expression for Warpinski who is a nationally recognized and highly regarded landscape photographer. Once each year for upwards of 10 years Warpinski would travel to the high desert marshlands of southeast Oregon in an effort to record her particular vision of it's wild and natural beauty.
And for as many years she would return home, go into the darkroom to discover that she had not yet captured what she saw as the consummate scene of this particular place. Not to be discouraged or dissuaded from her self assigned project she would return again the next year with tripod, camera and her hopes gathered together for another attempt to 'see' with her camera what she saw with her artist's heart.
Imagine yourself repeating an artistic ritual year after year holding true to your belief that one day you will be present for that precise moment when the natural elements of light and shadow are perfect. Believing that if you place yourself in the pathway of it's unfolding drama you might be able to record forevermore a symphony of natural splendor.
Imagine it. The patience, the resolve, the belief in synchronicity. This is a story of failure that i intend to imprint in my mind. There are endless stories like this in the world of art. Art takes courage. In fact failure forces us to the edge of creative genius. With failure we expand our imagination, acting and thinking in new ways. Failure is fundamental to the principles of the creative process and i will make and effort to embrace rather than fight with it.
"There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment....you must know with intuition when to click the camera..." Henri Cartier-Bresson
What wisdom have you gained from your own failures?
Love, robin
