Inside my mind right now it looks like this image. Except for National Geographic anything. They are not involved in any way. I have an incredible idea for a photographic project bordering on a life’s mission. It consumes every moment I’m online. I won’t talk about it publicly until I’m really well into actually shooting it but a huge part of it is research and planning.
As I’ve admitted in an earlier post, I have become ambivalent towards my LA street photography, a condition that comes at a very odd time considering one of my images will be featured in an exhibition at the Los Angeles Center of Photography. Printing, preparing, and presenting that image for exhibition was rewarding and a somewhat challenging experience that has led me to a different and much better place in terms of my own ability to get my images into a state where they can be viewed and sold.
I have now probably many dozens of images that I’ve been taking in the last month that I’m somehow unable to bring myself to share here. I don’t know why. The only thing I can offer is some vague feeling that they just aren’t good enough or don’t say any of the things I’ve typically wanted my images to say. I’ve had a feeling over the last year or so that I was in some kind of a sweet spot that might not last forever. I don’t know. Maybe I was right.
I really want to thank the many people, friends now, who have visiting and liked and commented on this blog over the last two years and ask for patience as I work through whatever it is I’m going through. You’re probably going to continue to see a lot of much older photography that I’ve done because while I’ve kind of grown kind of cold on the photography I’ve been doing lately, I’m simultaneously feeling a real appreciation and need to revisit and maybe even talk about all the stuff I used to do.
Anyway. The image above was taken yesterday, ironically and appropriately. Please know also that if you see current street photography here on this blog in the coming days and weeks, that I’m as dubious about its quality and worthiness as I possibly could be. To be perfectly honest.
50'Lux 
Best wishes on the journey!
Thank you, David!
Your mind looks cluttered. You gotta go by the gas station and get one of those long vacuum tubes and suck all the self-doubt out of your head. Maybe the street has just not been interesting enough to capture…In any event, having the opportunity to exhibit is an image many people would love, so enjoy it.
I think the street has not been that interesting. Some images, however, have been a little over the top. I have a great line regarding your gas station suggestion but I would lose many many friends and all self-respect if I posted it. But thank you for the kind thought. 😉
Self-doubt can sometimes be a good thing. I read recently in relation to poetry that you have to reach a crisis point before you create really great work. Your photography so far is great, so without wanting to be patronising, there may be some even better inages struggling to get out. All the best with it.
Thank you so much, Anthony. I’m hoping to personify that. 😉
I completely understand what you are going through. Don, your work is already great, but I believe that you are transcending in to the higher form of your creative self. I am excited for you and excited to see what you are about to give birth to.
Thank you so much, Karen. And within an hour or two of posting this I go out and get the three images (and more) that I will post tomorrow. Which are to my mind really wonderful. First in a long time.
Oh homegirl do I have an idea. And it involves home. It’s so powerful the hold it has inside of me. I’ve really as best I could turned my back on that place for almost 30 years but now I feel like what I have learned throughout that time and all the passion that I’ve had for so many things unrelated to anything back there (or was it?) can now be utilized to express something to an extent I don’t think I could ever achieve doing anything else in my life. THAT is how deep and real this is.
Everybody who is from a place like we’re from and gets out says they want to do something, if they’re artistic, ‘with’ the material that is the place and the history and all that. I’ve dreamed for years, both sleep-dreams and daydreams, of going back and doing something… but nothing has ever come into focus. Until this last week. And it has come into amazing focus. Everything. What I want to do, process, preparation, it’s actually scary. It’s like I’m writing a script with a shooting schedule and storyboarding ideas, etc.
I’ve actually developed carpel tunnel in my left hand, first time in my LIFE, from using ‘shift, command, #3’ to do screen captures on my Mac. I’ve done like a thousand screen captures. It’s crazy. lol. Preparation and planning.
This will be in every way so different from the photography I’m doing now. What I love about this idea is that no one could or would ever do this the way I’m going to do it. Absolutely impossible. It’s going to be my absolute voice, what I see and feel and what I want everyone else to see and how I want them to see it. And I’m going to pull it off.
I have to say this, too, Karen. I’m somehow ready for the first time in my life to stand up for what and where and who we come from. Other than vaguely and politically, I’ve never even considered that was possible in any material way. But this is going to be standing up. Oh well, I hope that’s all tantalizing enough. 😉
Love you and thanks for visiting.
db
I was going to comment that your post sounds like you’re on a real growth spurt and to go with that feeeling. Having read your comment above, I hear and feel the excitement that comes from knowing you’ve found that thing that drives. I’m looking forward to seeing and reading the reuslts of this whenever you’re ready to unveil. Good luck and may your history and home shine through in excellent union.x
thank you, scottishmomus!