On May 28th the New York Times published a wonderful article about Paul McCartney, his life and his music, to coincide with the release of his latest album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. The title of the article is Paul McCartney Doesn’t Need to Make Music Anymore. He Just Loves To and the opening caption reads:
“On his new album, the ex-Beatle revisits his past and revels in simply continuing to create”. The opening sentences goes on to say “For Paul McCartney, songwriting isn’t only a job, a craft and an emotional outlet. It’s a compulsion and a craving”.
It’s a great read, written by Jon Parele and highly recommended! It made me think about how I feel about my photographs. I just like making them. I’m not as old as Sir Paul and certainly not famous, but at my age I go out and see what the world has to offer … the journey … and if I find something that excites me I make the picture. Yes, I have projects I work on, or themes I’m interested in that can focus what I’m looking for, but if I don’t see anything I think will make an interesting picture then no worries. On the other hand, if something catches my eye, there’s nothing that satisfies me more than looking through the viewfinder and pushing the shutter release button on whatever camera I have with me.
This is what happened when I attended the recent D-Day Rally here in Doylestown. Yes I was hoping to make pictures, but the longer I was there the more I got drawn into the event itself. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop seeing pictures before me and as I began to envision how they might look, the more I wanted to make them. And so I did!
I think my approach is a healthy one … at least it is for me. No pressure, no stress. When I experience and see something that strikes me I do what I love and make the photograph!
Stay well,
Michael
Good, Michael, that you love making photographs. Who was it, Harry Callahan, who said he was “crazy about photography”?
For me now, I am loving the batches of scans from negatives that have been sitting in storage for decades. The images are often a surprise and I ask myself if I actually made some of these.
Sometimes I must have gotten away from my more or less dead-on portraiture and the images show a kind of wider view. In any case, all these photos, perhaps the majority from Southeast Asia from Southeast Asia are of people and things that went before.
And, if I can get these into some kind of book form that will be an accomplishment.
But soon, again I will be on silver wings on on high, and I have so much junk to deal with, while I’m stuck here on the ground.
Paul,
Thanks for checking in. I think the book idea is a good one. I’m hoping to do one or more myself as self publishing seems to be the way to go!
Best,
Michael
That’s the approach I also take, Michael. If photos need to be taken, they will communicate that to you, in other words, you’ll know. Otherwise, some events just need to be lived in, so can’t go wrong just having the camera close by, all set up to go when you get that “calling”.