{"id":678,"date":"2017-05-07T14:06:40","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T14:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/?p=678"},"modified":"2017-05-07T14:06:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T14:06:40","slug":"paul-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/2017\/05\/07\/paul-graham\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0\u201cPhotography is Easy, Photography is Difficult\u201d\u00a0(2009)<\/h1>\n
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It\u2019s so easy it\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s so easy that I can\u2019t even begin \u2013 I just don\u2019t know where to start. After all, it\u2019s just looking at things. We all do that. It\u2019s simply a way of recording what you see \u2013 point the camera at it, and press a button. How hard is that? And what\u2019s more, in this digital age, its free \u2013 doesn\u2019t even cost you the price of film. It\u2019s so simple and basic, it\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so difficult because it\u2019s everywhere, every place, all the time, even right now. It\u2019s the view of this pen in my hand as I write this, it\u2019s an image of your hands holding this book, Drift your consciousness up and out of this text and see: it\u2019s right there, across the room \u2013 there\u2026 and there. Then it\u2019s gone. You didn\u2019t photograph it, because you didn\u2019t think it was worth it. And now it\u2019s too late, that moment has evaporated. But another one has arrived, instantly. Now. Because life is flowing through and around us, rushing onwards and onwards, in every direction.<\/p>\n

But if it\u2019s everywhere and all the time, and so easy to make, then what\u2019s of value? which pictures matter? Is it the hard won photograph, knowing, controlled, previsualised? Yes. Or are those contrived, dry and belabored? Sometimes. Is it the offhand snapshot made on a whim. For sure. Or is that just a lucky observation, some random moment caught by chance? Maybe. Is it an intuitive expression of liquid intelligence? Exactly. Or the distillation of years of looking seeing thinking photography. Definitely.<\/p>\n

\u201clife\u2019s single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can admit to in a lifetime, and stay sane\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Thomas Pynchon, V<\/p>\n

Ok, so how do I make sense of that never ending flow, the fog that covers life here and now. How do I see through that, how do I cross that boundary? Do I walk down the street and make pictures of strangers, do I make a drama-tableaux with my friends, do I only photograph my beloved, my family, myself? Or maybe I should just photograph the land, the rocks and trees \u2013 they don\u2019t move or complain or push back. The old houses? The new houses? Do I go to a war zone on the other side of the world, or just to the corner store, or not leave my room at all?<\/p>\n

Yes and yes and yes. That\u2019s the choice you are spoiled for, but just don\u2019t let it stop you. Be aware of it, but don\u2019t get stuck \u2013 relax, it\u2019s everything and everywhere. You will find it, and it will find you, just start, somehow, anyhow, but: start.<\/p>\n

Yes, but shouldn\u2019t I have a clear coherent theme, surely I have to know what I\u2019m doing first? That would be nice, but I doubt Robert Frank knew what it all meant when he started, or for that matter Cindy Sherman<\/a> or Robert Mapplethorpe<\/a> or Atget or\u2026 so you shouldn\u2019t expect it. The more preplanned it is the less room for surprise, for the world to talk back, for the idea to find itself, allowing ambivalence and ambiguity to seep in, and sometimes those are more important than certainty and clarity. The work often says more than the artist knows.<\/p>\n

Ok, but my photography doesn\u2019t always fit into neat, coherent projects, so maybe I need to roll freeform around this world, unfettered, able to photograph whatever and whenever: the sky, my feet, the coffee in my cup, the flowers I just noticed, my friends and lovers, and, because it\u2019s all my life, surely it will make sense? Perhaps. Sometimes that works, sometimes it\u2019s indulgent, but really it\u2019s your choice, because you are also free to not make \u2018sense\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cso finally even this story is absurd, which is an important part of the point, if any, since that it should have none whatsoever seems part of the point too\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Malcolm Lowry, Ghostkeeper.<\/p>\n

Ok, so I do need time to think about this. To allow myself that freedom for a short time. A couple of years. Maybe I won\u2019t find my answer, but I will be around others who understand this question, who have reached a similar point. Maybe I\u2019ll start on the wrong road, or for the wrong reasons \u2013 because I liked cameras, because I thought photography was an easy option, but if I\u2019m forced to try, then perhaps I\u2019ll stumble on some little thing, that makes a piece of sense to me, or simply just feels right. If I concentrate on that, then maybe it grows, and in its modest, ineffable way, begins to matter. Like photographing Arab-Americans in the USA as human beings with lives and hopes and families and feelings, straight, gay, young, old, with all the humanity that Hollywood never grants them. Or the black community of New Haven, doing inexplicable joyous, ridiculous theatrical-charades that explode my preconceptions into a thousand pieces. Or funny-disturbing-sad echoes of a snapshot of my old boyfriend. Or the anonymous suburban landscape of upstate in a way that defies the spectacular images we\u2019re addicted to. Or\u2026 how women use our bodies to display who we believe we should be, Or\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cA Novel? No, I don\u2019t have the endurance any more. To write a novel, you have to be like Atlas, holding up the whole world on your shoulders, and supporting it there for months and years, while its affairs work themselves out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 J. M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year.<\/p>\n

And hopefully I will carry on, and develop it, because it is worthwhile. carry on because it matters when other things don\u2019t seem to matter so much: the money job, the editorial assignment, the fashion shoot. Then one day it will be complete enough to believe it is finished. Made. Existing. Done. And in its own way: a contribution, and all that effort and frustration and time and money will fall away. It was worth it, because it is something real, that didn\u2019t exist before you made it exist: a sentient work of art and power and sensitivity, that speaks of this world and your fellow human beings place within it. Isn\u2019t that beautiful?<\/p>\n

(The text was written for the Yale MFA photography graduation book \u2013 Yale MFA Photography 2009: We Belong Together<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cPhotography is Easy, Photography is Difficult\u201d\u00a0(2009) It\u2019s so easy it\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s so easy that I can\u2019t even begin \u2013 I just don\u2019t know where to start. After all, it\u2019s just looking at things. We all do that. It\u2019s simply a way of recording what you see \u2013 point the camera at it, and press […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,33,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ani_photo_film","category-creativity","category-process","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eidersuso.net\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}