Epiglotic Photographic :: blog

David DuChemin recently had an interesting blog post regarding faith and art. And it sparked a lot of commentary, which is almost as interesting as the original post. For me, this also sparked a long conversation on a recent roadtrip to Chicago. In my mind (and this isn’t meant to be a global artistic statement; maybe it only applies to me personally), the creative soul and the religious mind are hard to reconcile. My experience with religion (not faith) is that it is simply a set of rules/protocol to which one must adhere. Creativity, on the other hand, is the antithesis to that. Creativity requires an openness to everything swirling around the artist, and zero self-censorship. So David’s take on it was a good read, and something I have not stopped thinking about yet.

To me, this post is less about faith/religion and more about what it means to be an artist. As David said (paraphrasing), the act of making art requires a deep honesty, and a complete openness to what is going on around you.

I had an artist-mentor once that said “ideas are airborne”. She also said “keep your hands moving faster than your brain”. What she meant by these statements is that when an idea hits you, you have to run with it and not worry about whether or not you’re the only one with that idea. Your approach will be unlike anyone else’s (if you remain open and honest), so it won’t come off as copying. Secondly, if you allow your conscious, logical brain to catch up with what you’re doing, you will inevitably edit your art into oblivion. Or become intimidated and never let anyone see it.

So, applying those thoughts to David’s post, if you are a person of faith it can’t help but come out in your work. Or if you’re an atheist/agnostic. If one remains open to the creative process and doesn’t get in its way, any life story anecdote is likely to rear its head in your work.

That artistic openness to what’s in the air also leads itself to a kind of psychic awareness as well (though often you don’t realize it was prophetic until after the fact). Case in point: I was writing an album (I’m also a musician). After I gathered the songs I noticed there was a theme of death, or grief, to the album. But everything was fine in my life. As we finished recording, my wife was diagnosed with brain cancer, from which she later died. I’ve talked to many artists who have had this “accidentally prophetic” experience. And in every case, it happened when they worked hard, but got out of the way of what was coming to them and put it down on paper/on tape/whatever as fast as they could. Before they could think about it.

Back to photography, you see this all the time. Quite often, for me at least, the photos that really knock me over are not technically perfect. In fact they quite often are technically flawed. But coming through those flaws (or perhaps because of the flaws) is the soul of the artist. Then there are the photos that are, in fact, technically perfect. Superbly-crafted photographs. As a technician, you can reverse-engineer them to give yourself tools for future projects. But as an experience, as a piece of art, they often aren’t saying much. I like gear as much as the next photographer, but gear talk drives me crazy, as I think it’s missing the point. I couldn’t care less what brush Picasso used, and I dare say he wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Get out in front of your brain, where you have no idea what you’re doing, and you’re scared; that’s where you’ll find the real you. And the real art.