In a modern world full of distractions, being completely immersed in your own work and things that you truly care about is the ultimate luxury. Simple things like receiving phone calls, texts, and emails become a real distraction in my life. This is why I choose to keep my phone off or do not disturb for most of the day
Just try it.
Especially if you are photographing or working on anything you care about, the focus you will feel is insane. It actually does make a huge difference in my practice. Fasting is not even for health reasons at this point, it’s for the godlike intuition!
Allow the mundane moments to become your paradise.
one of the most powerful aspects of photography is that it is endless. You could position yourself at the same vantage point and photograph the same thing each and every day, but never never make the same photograph twice.
I want to live a FULL life during my short time on this earth. When I’m old I want to look back at all of the experiences I’ve had through my photography and memory. I believe it is much more fulfilling to have a life of experience than chasing material things.
Where do I thrive?
THE FRONTLINES OF LIFE
The ultimate goal of an artist is to share our everyday lives and uplift the human experience to new heights. Photography allows us to do this daily as we can simply snapshot our way through life and uplift the mundane.
You cannot make the same photograph twice
One of the most powerful aspects of photography is that you cannot make the same photograph twice. You can look at the same thing each and every day and make a new photograph of it. Because of the nuances of light, and the way that it etches shape and form to objects, people, and places, there’s infinite opportunity to make some a new each day. Photography is endless.
“Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”
Tyler Durden
Just keep it simple and fast paced.
Don’t let your archive pile up and become a degenerate photographer.
Make selections, edit in the photos app built into the iPad with speed, back everything up to google photos, and move onto the next one. We should become efficient with our practice both on the streets and off. By making daily selections and staying on top of your archive, you will save yourself a headache further down the line.
By trying to be different, or an individual, you actually just wind up following trends.
We must remember that photography is both a physical pleasure and a visual game. This means, increasing our power and focusing on the human body is critical to reach your fullest potential.
I believe weightlifting is critical to becoming a better photographer. You may wonder how these things correlate and why I believe this? Honestly it’s simple and related to the kaizen Japanese philosophy.
The word “Kaizen” is derived from Japanese. It is composed of two characters: “改” (kai) meaning “change” or “to correct,” and “善” (zen) meaning “good” or “for the better.” Thus, Kaizen translates to “change for the better” or “improvement.” This concept is widely used in business and manufacturing contexts to denote continuous improvement involving everyone from executives to workers.
Essentially, in order to improve your photography for the better, you must work on it every single day. Similar to weightlifting, photography requires a a lot of time working in order to see any results.
My thought is that consistent weightlifting and physical training everyday not only will increase your power and courage to continuously throw yourself onto the frontlines of life and embrace chaos, but it will also teach you to enjoy the process. The more you find joy in putting the reps in, whether in the gym or on the street, the more successful you will be with your photography.
Let us put aside these basic notions of what makes a “good” or “bad” photograph. Instead, I like to consider notions of strength and weakness.
Surely, a strong photographer will have more power and courage to make more photographs, get closer to life itself, and be the “good” photographer. A weak photographer will be shy, intimidated by the streets, and might find themselves on the sidelines of life, ultimately making “bad” work.
These binary ideas of good or bad are basic at best. Let us reframe our perspective to the physical, the real, the tangible human bodies that we possess. By increasing your power each and every day, it is inevitable that you will become a stronger photographer. Forget about the books, forget about the cameras, the lenses, the technical, and the history of photography. Become the strongest version of yourself, and throw yourself onto the frontlines of life.
