What is a"vision"?

[Hugo J. Zhang]

Aaron,

I agree with what Kevin and Carl. Photography is only one means of artistic expression. It's more a journey than a destination. The "vision" comes from within yourself. You have to dive into yourself to find it. It's an accumulation of your experience(pains and bliss), of what you have learned, of your memories of past and observations of HERE and NOW. You have to ask yourself a serious question: Do I have to use cameras to express myself? Be honest with yourself. If the anwser is a simple no, then do not take photography seriouly, there are millions of happy hobbiests in this world. If the anwser is YES, and photography as a means of expression so important for you that you can not live without it, then start to build a life around it. Your can not ask other people opinon about your photos. They are irrelavent. Do not expect to make a living out of it. It's more a sacrifice. Take your time to learn, and do not rush yourself. Try to observe THINGS. When you look at a tree in its fall glory, try to imagine yourself as that tree, feel the warm golden light on your skin. In addition to Rilke, read Van Gorh's letters, some Proust, or even some Zen books. Sometimes you have to get loose. If you have the verbal anwser for the big question of "vision", why do you need photography? Photography is a very sensual experience, enjoy it. If you do not have an an anwser to your question, be content that you do not have an anwser. To finish, I want to quote you some wisdom of 3000 years age: Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Be all that heaven gave you, but act as though you have received nothing. Be empty, that is all. The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects nothing. It reflects but does not hold. Therefore, the perfect man can act without effort.

[Paul Mongillo]

Aaron, you are spending way to much time trying to apply a formula or scientific technique to creativity. The bottom line, is don't take an image unless you are moved by your subject matter. I spent the last two weeks of September wandering (mostly alone) and exploring the ruins of Cedar Mesa, Utah. I only took 31 photographs, but I have five maybe six outstanding images. I took a couple just because I nearly killed myself getting to one particular ruin. The image is not impressive, but will always remind me of the ordeal I went through to get there.

Ordinary things may not move you as they do others. Only you can feel what that motivation is. I can't imagine myself finding beuty in a fork, but others might and will probably blow me away with the image. If you aren't moved by your subject, how can you expect your audience to be moved by your final image?

On the scientific end, you need the technical skills to bring what excited you to the final print. What moved you when you took the image may or may not play a role when you decide to print it. Something different may grab you months later in the darkroom. Develope the technical skills you need, then stop thinking about it. Just do it....

[Jim Galli]

Hi Aaron, I'm going to answer and read the other posts second.

I love to over-simplify because I feel everybody, yourself included, makes this too hard.

Vision is simply how "I" "me" see. I'm a processor progammed by 50 years of life experiences. Tears, joys, my family, my faith, my loves, my hates, my fears, who I am. Put a scene in front of me and I "see" it differently than anyone else. It's not something that I have to go looking for, it's there. Over time I see 3 maybe 4 bodies of work that could be roughly categorized that all are a direct result of "my" vision.

Since it's built in, and I can't/ won't do much to change it, the natural fear is to say, "Does this guy have anything to say?" Well, I do or I don't. That's for others to decide. Doesn't matter because I'm not going to change and be somebody else, "Adams" "Weston" "Mann" whoever to please the masses. I'm just me, and the pictures I take go through that filter/ processor, and over time that combined vision becomes a style if you will, a signature for good or for bad.

[Sandy Sorlien]

Hi Aaron,

To clarify what I wrote on the other thread about vision: Of course I don't mean that one sits around in a vacuum, comes up with an idea, and then goes looking for ways to express it. As others have already written eloquently in these posts, your vision does evolve over time and is made up of your experiences and your attention to the world outside yourself and well as inside yourself. That includes attention to the work of those artists who came before you, in any medium.

While it is somewhat frustrating and sometimes futile to communicate with words what is a visual experiences, I do believe it is a great help to write down your thoughts about your work and life, as someone already suggested. In school we make our students learn how to write artist's statements, and pull their work together in series. All that really helps you see what you have been doing. Remember the creative process does not stop after the shutter is released. Editing, choosing, cropping... SEEING your pictures after they are shot is equally important as making the exposure.

Yes, Carl, add a return to the end of your post and it won't cut off.

Cheers!

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

Aaron

Please please do not get the impression that I want to argue with you or that I think I know all of the answers. I certainly don't. But I do know this becasue I have experienced it many many times. Two people can go to a gallery or a museum and look at photographs. And one person will say, " I see this and this and this in that photograph and I think this is what that guy was saying", and the other person will say, "well, I guess I see it this way, and I like this and this and this, but I really don't like what you liked, and I really this the guy was trying to say this instead of what you think he was trying to say". And that whole conversation can and does actually take place AFTER both people have read about the photographer and actually studied what the photographer had to say about his own work!!!!!!! Consider this. You and I could go out "crusing for snaps" as they say, and we might each at the same time see the same thing and tell each other we want to stop and photograph that thing. Heck, we might both even put our tripod in the same holes. And our prints may look exactly alike. But if you showed your print to one person and I showed mine to another person, we may each get a different expression from those people as to what the photograph means to them. And those expressions about "the photographers vision" might be completely different from what you or I felt when we made the photograph. Which is why I said before that even though we might use words to convey a little something about what we saw and felt when we exposed the film, those words may not convince the viewer because the viewed may not "see", or as you say, "have the same "vision" as you do. The bottom line is,and has to be, that the image speaks for itself. You feel something and you make the image. You present it to someone else for approval. Either they approve it or not. And if you are strong enough in your character and your belief in your "vision" you accept what they have to say for what it is, you continue to believe in yourself, you continue to expose film and make prints, and you live your life. You may never in your own lifetime have knowledge of whether other people believe you had a "vision" or not. All you can do is feel how you feel, go about your business in as comforatable a manner as is possible, live your life, and if you choose, tell other people about yourself through your words and if you are so inclined through your photographs. In addition, and it sounds simple enough, remember that a photograph is and must be about the "thing" photographed. I think too many people get mixed up about that. I might have a "vision" that we live in a beautiful world, but if I only photograph ugly things I certainly didn't go about showing my "vision" did I. And then the question becomes, is what is beautiful to me also beautiful to you. All we can do is rely on ourselves and our feelings, and put them out there to be judged, and be happy in the knowledge that we were in the arena trying our best, and every once in awhile be really happy when a viewer comes up and says they see the same thing you saw. If that happens You have then communicated, which means that another person has recognized you as having worth, and life is good! Kevin

[Michael Chmilar]

"Vision" is Kodak's name for its current motion picture reversal filmstocks (2383, 2393, 5242/7242, 5246/7246, etc.). It is not available in sheet film sizes, just 35mm and 70mm bulk rolls. (And, yes, I am just being a smartass!) :-)

[Ellis Vener]

A photographer's "vision' is usually something that is defined by someone looking back over a photorapher's body of work; the person doing the looking is usually someone other than the photographer and sometimes the photographer buys into that "niche' and sometimes they just keep making images of the things that interest them (which can be changable) and in ways that interest them. and ignore the pigeonholeing. Some people have their "vision" defined early on and either dig deeper into it or say that's nice and try not to take it too seriously. (it's important to take your work seriously and more important not to take yourself seriously) . this sounds that I'm dismissing the value of input from others. But I'm not, it is really great to have other people look at your work and give you feedback about it, to help you see elements & themes in your work that you either take for granted or that you just don't see. This process can open paths into your work that you just weren't aware of. You have to develop a sense of whose opinions to trust and whose not to take to heart. This , like, vision, takes time, work, doubt & sweat.

[Ellis Vener]

Aaron,

I just read an interview with the actor Jim Carrey in the Dec, 17, 2001 issue of the New Yorker. In it he says something that should make you feel better:

"Well I've asked for a lot, you know. I pray for wisdom, and when you pray for wisdom you get your ass kicked."

Happy holidays!

[Jim Galli]

Three large format photographers are riding through Yosemite together. The first guy yells "Stop" and we stop while he sets up his tripod almost in Ansels tripod holes and does a picture of "Monolith Halfdome" He's bemused that neither I nor the other photog even set up a tripod. We continue on and after a bit I yell "STOP" and I set up my tripod and take a picture of the remains of a fueling station that operated in the park from 1927 to 1941. I'm careful to include line and detail that to me speaks of a previous generations style and quality and mood. The other 2 guys think I'm crazy. Eventually we proceed on and after a bit the 3rd guy yells stop. He sets up his tripod and does a picture of an illegal fire ring with beer bottles and trash lying around and just in the corner of his wide angle, almost out of focus is Yosemite falls, an Icon recognizeable by anyone.

Fiction of course but 'nuff said.

[Ellis Vener]

Let me guess at the photographer's real names :

(1st photographer) Fred Picker (never had an original idea)

(2nd photographers name) John Sexton (Places of Power)

(3rd photorapher) Robert Adams (our (humanities) impact on the enviroment.