2024 07 26
It’s the subtle details. Nashville, Tennessee. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I’ve always been a picture taker. Expanding on some thinking from yesterday’s post (2024 07 25), picture taking requires me to always be on the hunt for the image. It’s a never-ending collection of moments that pile up on hard drives until I am buried in them. Lately I have been contemplating what might happen if I were to mix a bit of making with a bit of taking.
Peter McKinnon just posted this great video (below) about photographer Matt Barnes, who takes picture making to the extreme. I know I could never take this approach myself as I live for the chance occurrence and feel like my skill is in knowing it when I see it. That said, in my professional role of photographer, we are constantly mixing the candid and natural moments with the styled and manipulated. It’s on these shoots that I’ll have an entire crew of people and props and lights and whatever else is needed.
What I don’t do, however, is use this approach in my personal work. Those moments are mostly always fully candid and happenstance. The image above, for example, isn’t a great image but it has some stuff working for it. One or two more fun details, however, and it might be elevated to something more special and unique. Where I struggle is in knowing what my true identity is as an artistic photographer. That’s partly what this blog is here to help me discover. Am I the guy who strictly finds moments? A true and dedicated street photographer. Or am I the guy who uses my creativity to produce artistic work via whatever path is needed to get there?
The idea that Matt Barnes is able to put all of this time, effort, and energy into creating a moment, then make two or three images and call it a wrap, and then print (I assume?) and DELETE-FROM-HIS-HARD-DRIVES the digital files once he is done with it is something I both love and will never be able to understand… which reminds me, I have thirty-five hard drives I need to back up *visualizes tossing them all into the lake*.
-Clayton
