THE SEEN

Will this year end up being the inflection point I’ve often heard art photographers talk about when referring to the moment it finally clicked for them, when they found their style, their niche, their personal touch inspired by the ‘masters’ of yore but distinctive enough to feel as theirs?

In the past, it made sense, in theory, to hear about “getting out of one’s own way”, a somewhat cliché assertion I initially understood as the ability to create with no pressure to conform, improve technical know-how, birth instant masterworks with every snap or invite viewers into wow reactions.

And I agreed.

However, it now seems to make authentic art not just to understand but to live by this “getting out of one’s own way” creed, which, in reality, doesn’t run counter to seeking outside reactions (a natural and understandable human tendency for anyone living in society) but which refers to aligning one’s creative endeavors not only with one’s personal tastes but more importantly - and more crucially - with one’s personality, as unconventional and uncommon and unpopular as it may be.

This is when the creative work starts to flow on its own, with some degree of consistency, whether aesthetically or thematically, because it flows under the impulse of a trusted, worthy, accepted self, which may encounter indifference or rejection even from close acquaintances but whose creative output still feels intimately rewarding.

Which explains how a moody-atypical-somewhat-cynical-boring self got on a recent train ride and, yet again, made use of the only dingy smartphone he had in order to take, well, moody-atypical-somewhat-cynical-boring pictures with enough ‘imperfections’ to annoy the heck out of pixel-peeping perfectionists.

But still…

They feel too good not to be seen…