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Something was said the other day that got me to thinking about the difference in craft and art. I have had a little experience in both so thought I would rattle a little on the differences as I see them.
My art work came first along with the study of art and time with both my mentors. One of the best things about not being locked into a ‘career’ is I have had time to explore other things (I won’t go into the bad parts of that). So in time I went to school and studied gunsmithing and as usual I went into it full bore and did my best to become one of the best around. In many ways I succeeded in the pistol end of this and in building and custom work on very high end skeet and trap shotguns. I did learn a lot on the nature of craftsmanship and how it applies to artwork and other disciplines from my time working on beautiful objects. Huge amounts of money is spent on these types of firearms and only the best wood, metalworking and workmanship is expected. Although I have seen firearms whose beauty and workmanship would take your breath away I do not consider them art, even when I have heard the term used to describe them. The finest craftsmanship and beautiful materials don’t make a work of art. They will make a beautiful object that is a joy to hold and view, as well as an object that continues to provide that same pleasure over and over every time you see or hold it.

This is true also for some photographs and other works of painting or sculpture, however the part we admire is the skill and ability of the person who made it, not the message or voice of the piece its self, much the same in a fine firearm. The difference is that craft is about the skill and mastery of that skill not the image. Art is about the image and the skill will either add to that or become secondary to the works message and soul. It is my contention that many folks in photography have been caught up in the skill portion of the work and can’t differentiate between the mastery of skill and voice or message. When the two combine it makes the creation of a clear voice easier but it isn’t about how it is told as much as what is said. Not all works have to have the voice of Shakespeare to be eloquent or get the meaning across. Some photos can use the simple voice of Steinbeck and tell a story as well or even use a voice and skill set we don’t know about yet. I admire craft for the skill of the person making the work and I admire them in the work, that isn’t the same as having the admiration for the work and what it makes me feel. If the work can transcend the craft with message and feeling it becomes much more than the makers skill.

This is where I have the problem with so many thinking they are gaining something by trying to copy a skill set of another as a learning  tool. In custom work on firearms, you strove to find your own style and way of working not copy someone else, that only led to dismissal in most eyes. Each piece of wood or metal was different so had to be worked that way. I think each persons vision and way of seeing is much like that piece of wood and needs to find its own way of being worked. Basics are basics and after that all effort should go into finding what and how you do things as yourself with your voice. If it looks right to you it is. I would rather be the artist than the craftsman always. Working thru a problem or adding a skill set is important if it adds to what you want to say, and if that is something another has solved then it is time to work on their solution to the craft. If a person asks or is seeking a solution to something they don’t think works then it is time to ask advice or personal solutions to  an image. However if it feels right it is. Each piece of wood or metal has its own grain and way of being what it is, the beauty and voice is shaped in accordance with its own nature. You can’t make something into what it isn’t and have it feel real or genuine. Copying someone else’s style or method is an attempt to make something into what it isn’t.

I am not trying to diminish the importance of craft here but I am trying to say that craft without vision or something to say is just exercise. The development of skills and craft should go along with the development of a clear message and direction of the reasons for making something. If it was just about the craft or exercise musicians could just play scales and painters could just mix colors or we could all just copy the same subject over and over.

To often inspiration is turned into imitation of craft. Inspiration should be influence, influence that you use to build on your own vision. All art is influenced by what has come before and the great works use that as a part of or a stepping stone to help their own unique vision. All along in both art and craft I have felt the influence of those gifted craftsmen and artist, and I believe others should influence our work, I also believe that inspiration needs to come from someplace else. Inspiration is the thought that keeps you awake at night, the passion that makes you ask questions, the terminal curiosity that drives you to find a new way of saying something. Inspiration is unique to the individual and not provided by others and their way of seeing the world, what has been confused with inspiration is an admiration of craft and the individuals ability to express themselves. Influence and inspiration are something that really should require another discussion and I will write on that soon.

Excellent craft can become ‘invisible’ when we are surrounded by it, message and vision can’t. One is unique and the other is a learned skill. Learned skills are for everyone, a unique voice is individual and not something that can be duplicated.

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::PS I see that David duChemin has written a post on the same thing today and would encourage everyone to go read what David has to say, it is much more eloquent than my email conversation and right on the money as far as I can see.

Just another one of Dave since I haven’t posted anything for a while.

There is always a story.

Great post on JerseyStyle Photography this week on Josh Bradley for one of Marks Sunday Focus segments. Josh is a fantastic photographer and if you haven’t seen his work go read about him and then check out his website and some of the projects he is working on. Josh reminded me why I bought the E-P2 and basically I hadn’t posted any from that camera for a while. So here is a couple from Sunday while waiting to hang out with Sabrina for the day.

It is good to have friends when you are in a bit of a slump on ambition, no matter how much you keep plugging away, it always gets better when they lend that little spark that makes it fun again. Best day I have had in a long time. Looked at images and shared ideas on photography, art and life in general. The kind of friends and day that make the whole business worth while.

Some doors you just have to go through no matter how they look.

Key City Players are presenting The Tempest by Shakespeare in Chetzemoka Park for the rest of the month. Excellent job by all and a wonderful experience.

Do you see stories? I know it sound like a bit of a funny question but I do. It may come from a lot of people watching in airports or public places. One of the things I do most is sit and watch folks and try to figure out their story. In a lot of cases if it isn’t obvious I will make one up to go along with the way they look, walk, stand etc. It is an exercise in imagination, sometimes the really interesting things are the stories that should have been instead of the ones that were. If it isn’t there make it there. If it is there tell that one, but tell a story that is worth listening to.

More ideas and truths are expressed in fiction than ever in non-fiction. Fiction doesn’t have facts to get in the way of truth.

As usual I am on another ramble that will only make sense to a few readers, the point I am attempting to make is see stories in everything around you. See the story that went into the shopkeepers job and life, the story that went into making the hot rod at the car show, the story that walks with the elderly at the supermarket and so on. See the story that happens when you combine things that don’t look like they fit together, see the story in the sunset and the gardens you photograph. Seeing these stories will add meaning to the images you make and help you to see even more. See past what the world hands you!

If the world won’t provide the images to tell a story you have, bring the parts together and tell the story. Beg or buy the parts, beg or borrow friends to stand in, beg, borrow or buy the props and make it all real. It is your story and your idea and your truth, tell it the way you want.

For the record the above was kind of how the image here came about. Random additions to what we were doing and it makes an implied story or even a story that you can interpret any way you want, point being it became more than just a model photo.  Next post I want to tell you about the couple of days hanging with Tim Engle and shooting with the Coast P7 flash light.

This post was because it might be time to share some of the thoughts I normally reserve for Sabrina and Mark.
The making public of some of these thoughts might begin to make the whole tv in the woods story seem like that was sane but there you have it. Ideas are free and each of us has an unlimited supply all it takes is unlocking that imagination within. I take an hr or so each day to lay on the couch and daydream ideas to photograph, the real ‘What if’ with no constraints of budget or “oh I can’t do that because….”. If the idea works well enough then it is time for the lets figure out how to make it happen. If it is good enough and you are passionate enough there will be a way to get the image. Just use your imagination, its free.

Just a teaser image for the book Revival that is coming together a lot slower than I planned.

Voiceworks at Centrum all day yesterday.

Ryan

Processed this from a raw file with Nik Silver to HP5, for a whole lot more on this and a comparison of film and digital check out Chris Klug’s experiment at Patterns of Light n’ Dark. Excellent work on the difference between digital and film with some conclusions that will surprise most folks.

Before I get into what has been in the works, tonight I wish I was in Vancouver for dinner and conversation. Dave, David, Mary and Sabrina are getting together to talk photography and have dinner. I was graced with an invitation which means a lot to me from this group of folks. Unfortunately due to a personal project and timing I can’t make the journey, I really wish I was there tonight. However this is one of the last two nights of shooting on the project in this location.

Personal projects, even the small ones sometimes take on a life of their own.
After all the years of riding I know a lot of different people and from all sections of the biker world inculding a lot of the guys in the Christian Crusaders MC. They are a ministry that preach to outlaw bikers and move a tent meeting around the western US.  About the time I was starting to work again on a series of portraits of guys who have been riding for 25 yrs or more, I found out the CC would be setting up a revival tent in my area for 2 weeks. I managed to call in a couple of favors and secured permission to shoot the whole time they were here both in the tent meeting and in the camp they take with them wherever they go.

I am drawn to the images that Matt Brandon and David DuChemin publish but more so to the ones that are faith based. Their work is in the east but to me a revival meeting is as foreign as any celebration in India. Knowing some of these folks and a little about them I sensed a lot of that same passion and power in these folks that I see in others images.  My curiosity and need to see took over and away I went, looking for that kind of emotion and power. The color of a foreign land isn’t there but the rest is. Being the whole project is taking a somewhat photojournalist feel to it, the images take on a B&W feel to them that also fits with the folks and location.

Lots of white backgrounds and people who are focused on the sermon not on the photographer is a real different feel than my normal way of working. It makes for a different aesthetic than I am used to and also drives home the fact that color and location don’t make a style, vision does. The expectations I had going in have all been thrown out the window and new ones replaced on a daily basis.

The plan is to put this whole mess into some sort of coherency as a book and couple of slide shows. So I will be updating the progress as it occurs along with a few here and there from the Rhody parades which I covered for 4 full days (that is a lot of parades). Wish I had more to say on all this but for me it is tough to describe the swamp when you are standing in the middle of it.

Also now is about time to thank  Jeff, Mark and my darling Sabrina for the support and inspiration for this project, lots more gets done when you have friends that allow you to fail… or succeed.  Few more images from the ton of them on flickr. It has been an intense and productive week and I recommend that anyone who is serious about people photography, social photography or telling stories to take a look around you there are as many as you would ever want to tell within reach.

It doesn’t always require a plane ticket to make a difference or find important images, the most important thing you can do is tell the story your neighbor or community needs told. In a lot of ways it is harder and more important to tell the story close to home, it prevents the familiar from becoming invisible. My current paying work involves images for a land trust and people getting into their first home. Real people with real needs and close to home, working to solve the problems around us so we can all help to solve the ones in other lands. Anything is possible if we take it one small step at a time. I want my images to matter to more than just being something nice to look at and hope that these kinds of projects can help me to see more of what is important to others and tell their story. I may or may not agree with the stories I try to tell  but they all deserve to have a voice and I might just learn something. Go make pictures that matter today.

Wow didn’t mean to get up on that box, back to a regular schedule next week of images for others. Course now that this is in print I gotta come thru with something worthwhile……

Lots of writing and image making going on it’s just not ready for prime time.  So here is a morning ferry ride to Keystone.