Tagged : ‘Thinking Out Loud’

“Did they tell you stories? Of ghosts and life after death?”

a) Do your basic research, look up materials on the subject in the media, library etc.
b) Talk to people, experts, on the subject. Discussions, brainstorming is key.
c) Reflect on how honest is your story. Does your romantic notions of the story match with reality?

If it doesn’t, may be you should think again.

I often wonder how young photographers (or generally those who are just starting out) navigate through existential issues. Don’t they struggle, stutter, fall into their own web? How do they cope with the industry’s ever changing demands? Most (un)importantly, how the hell do they manage to fit in?

For the longest time I believed I was a documentary photographer. Until last evening, when a fellow photographer and friend simply asked whether I was indeed a documentary photographer. “May be you are a travel photographer,” he said.

He probably is right. May be I’m not a documentary photographer. May be, one fine day I’ll bloom into this evolved person with the right amount of indifference and sensitivity brewed into me. Until then, I continue to ask. What does it mean to be a documentary photographer? How do photographers tell those difficult (negative) stories and still claim they care? What does it mean to be a bad person, but a great artist?

As I ponder over these things, I decide I should stick to doing whatever I feel is right and leave the industry and it’s myriad complexities for the ambitious few to conquer. Like a friend said, may be I’m in the ‘danger’ of being an (irrelevant) fine art photographer. Or may be, I’m just human.

“Whats a life worth without the possibility of a dream come true”

The nightmares are the same. I’m walking through arched corridors of the ancient building towards an exam hall. I know I’m not prepared. The question paper is printed in a foreign language. My fingers don’t move. The certainty of failure looms large over my head.

I’d say its fairly easy to reach 90% of perfection in whatever it is you want to do. But that last mile. The last 10%. That’s the most difficult part. Perhaps that differentiates good from greatness.