Solstice parade

Someone recently accused me of,”always trying something new.” I know it was and is a compliment. But what I thought remarkable was, he was right, and I didn’t identify it for myself, until he said it.

This is one of those times when I was just trying something to see what would happen. Carrying a bank light on my back with the power source in side the backpack I was walking around Santa Barbara and this guy asked if I would like to make his photo, doing something wild. Of course I said, yes. And this is what he did.

Learning from mistakes has always been a theme of mine. Always make new mistakes, and learn from them. In this case the light flared dramatically into my lens. But in this case, I think the mistake actually adds to the frenetic action of the scene. There is this guy standing on one hand kicking his feet into the air. A police car right behind him. Large colorful items in the street with the man, palm trees and a stop sign. There is a lot going on. Add to that the random flaring of the lens from the light I was carrying on my back and it looks like someone is throwing little pieces of glitter or balls of light in the scene.

At first blush one might think there is a lot wrong with this photo. Besides the flaring there are lots of flattening issues. The palm tree coming out of his foot, the stop sign flattened against his thigh, the policeman’s face is even visible between the man’s legs and his arm. I took all of this into consideration when I decided to show this image to the world. I think it will be one of those the viewer will either love or hate.

I’m good with that.

Richard Avedon mentioned the idea of making photographs at annual events in his book “In The American West.” Lots of people come to town to attend. Annual events are a great place to do some photography. Santa Barbara has a solstice parade every year and people make elaborate costumes or no costume at all, (it had a reputation of nude participants) and march up State Street. I was trying something new and carried a light box and a portable power source and went to the parade line up area before it started to get behind the scenes images like this one. Being willing to take chances and try something new, is what separates a photographer from someone with a camera.  

The snapshot aesthetic for me is the most difficult genre of photography. It suggests, just by its description, that the subject and content are not important. The lighting style is not important. The framing is not important. But in fact, all of that is extremely important. If it is done correctly the techniques are barely visible but the end result is captivating. Photographers like Stephen Shore and Nan Goldin have mastered this seemingly simple yet complicated style. I have been viewing Marisha Camp’s work as well recently and she also belongs to this category but, her lighting is so pronounced and part of each image it becomes its own style. I would say each of these other photographers have influenced me from day to day. But today’s image is my interpretation of that influence. I was going for that snapshot feel with the production value I enjoy bringing to every image I produce. This image reminds me of my youth when my parents would take the family to Avalon on Catalina Island for a week during the summer. There are photographs that seem so similar to this, of us in my family’s archives. The personal influence from those files lives strongly in my aesthetic.   http://www.marishaphoto.com http://www.artnet.com/artists/nan-goldin/ http://stephenshore.net