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Jackson Pollock
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National Novel Writing Month, 2007
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• Third Person Press •
what: Undercurrents Anthology
speculative fiction/poetry
who: Cape Breton Island writers
when: deadline March 15, 2008
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Jun
14
Expecting the Unexpected
June 14, 2007 |
[-photography, process-]
This photo is one I took over two years ago. It came up this morning while I was playing the game Free Association! on flickr. The game involves posting an image in response to the last one posted by someone else. I did a flickr search through my photos for “window” and “silhouette” and this popped up. I hadn’t seen it in a long time and I found that I enjoyed it—really for the first time.
It has unexpected qualities. The distorted shape of the window. The gradation of blue from the top of the window to the whiter light at the bottom. The reflection of green on the window sill and the way the light between the tree branches seems to slide inside into to the corner of the window. The pop of red! And there’s something going on between outside and inside. That’s open to interpretation, of course, but either the flower faces the window as if yearning to be outside or perhaps the bare birch tree is admiring/envious of that splash of living colour. I’m not sure, but there’s certainly a hint of communication between the two.
All of this, of course, was unintended.
I took the photograph with my LOMO LC-A. It’s a refurbished version of a cheap camera made in Russia decades ago and it gives erratic and often impressionistic results—which is why LOMO’s have become popular and lucrative long after the cameras stopped being manufactured.
This photo was of a truly unremarkable scene. My step-son had been visiting and left an empty can of 7-UP on his window sill. Also in his room (this was after he’d gone home) I found a red carnation that he’d picked up in some restaurant we’d been to. Rather than toss both of them immediately into the waste basket, I put the carnation in the 7-UP can and took some LOMO’s.
This morning when I really saw it for the first time, it made me think about the act of creating as one of constantly expecting the unexpected. This image isn’t just about the unpredictability of the LOMO, though that’s a big part of it. It is also about taking the time to photograph an unremarkable scene and to chance shooting a dull, unsuccessful photograph in order to come up with something that has something different to offer. It took combining the colours of what was there: the metallic green 7-UP can and the red carnation against the white and blue background and taking it from a low angle in order to catch the super blue of the highest sky. It took depending on the unpredictability of the little Russian camera.
Each act of creation is an act of faith. We don’t know if it’s going to work out or not. That’s never the point. Doing it is the point. Doing it with an open heart and sense of expectancy that will allow us to recognize—once it’s done—when we have indeed caught the unexpected.
also posted in: Photography - technique , Photography , Creative Cross-pollination , Inspiration , Motivation , Craft , Creations , Commentary , Process
tags: 7-UP, act of creation, action, birch, carnation, creation, doing, expecting, flickr, found, Free Association, game, lc-a, light, lomo, openness, photo, photograph, photos, see, sky, unexpected, unpredictable, way, work
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Results of our previous poll
What is your biggest creativity problem?too many projects at once can't get in the groove not enough time everything else takes priority self-doubts
other ['not enough talent']27% 20% 20% 15% 15%
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