cole
thompson photography
newsletter
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Issue 110 - February 12, 2020
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Greetings!
In this newsletter:
- The Exhibition Print Sale is Back!
- Why Do I Write Photography Articles?
- New "Dunes of Nude" images from Death Valley
- Where You Can See Me Next
- Print Drawing
I've just returned from a month on the road, to Death Valley and back. I was very fortunate to have seen so much and to have brought home several images that I love, such as the new Self-Shadow image above.
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In this newsletter I'm introducing new "Dunes of Nude" images from the Mesquite Dunes. I've been going to the dunes for many years now, but this year I felt particularly connected to them.
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I could use your help!
I'll be presenting to photo clubs in these cities and on these dates:
- 7/23/2020 Bozeman, MT
- 10/22/2020 Springfield, MO
- 9/2020 La Paz, Bolivia
- 4/1/2021 Caldwell, NJ
I would like to speak to other nearby clubs while I'm out that way.
If you know of a club in one of these areas that might be interested, would you please ask them to contact me?
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Quote:
"There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad" - Salvador Dali
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Thank you for subscribing to and reading my newsletter!
Cole
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About every other year I have an “Exhibition Print Sale” where I sell images that have been previously exhibited. These may be framed, matted or just a print.
Most images will have signs of being exhibited such as a label on the back, pinholes on the corners, markings on the back, slightly chipped frames and etc.
But the important thing is that images themselves are in perfect condition.
These prints are sold at a discount because they are not “new.”
To view the prints that I have available,
click here
.
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Please note the shipping charges listed on the inventory list and also be aware that this is a "first come, first served" sale.
So please do contact me quickly if you are interested in an image.
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Why Do I Write Blog Articles?
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I was talking with some friends recently and they asked why I write these articles. I thought about my motivations and wanted to share them.
First, I don’t do it for the money...because there is none! I don’t sell advertising or subscriptions.
I don’t do it to win followers. I tend to alienate as many as I endear - just bring up Photographic Celibacy at your next gathering of photographers and see what happens.
Maybe I do it for the likes? No, I'm not very likeable.
Or perhaps I want to be an “internet influencer?” (I don't really know what that means)
Here’s the truth of it: I write because I know there are many photographers out there who are in the exact same place that I found myself some 15 years ago::
- I didn't believe I was creative
- I had no idea if I had a Vision
- I wanted more than winning ribbons and earning likes
I write about my experiences and what I've learned to help others who are find themselves in a similar place.
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My Photographic Story
My story begins at the age of 14 when I was living in Rochester, NY. A friend and I were out hiking when we came across an old house that my friend said had once been owned by George Eastman. That piqued my interest and so I downloaded Eastman's biography from iTunes...I mean I checked out Eastman’s biography from the school library (coincidently I’m re-reading that biography right now).
I was immediately fascinated by photography and before I had finished that book, before I had ever taken a picture or seen a print develop in the darkroom, I was convinced that I was destined to be a photographer. This sounds silly I know, coming from a 14 year old boy, but that is how I felt then and how I still feel today.
And so for the next several years, photography was my entire life. My every waking moment was spent reading, photographing and experimenting. I skipped so many classes because I was out photographing, that I
barely
graduated high-school.
I grew up with no art or music in the home, and because I was not taught to be creative, I came to believe that I wasn't. I surmised that you were either born with the creative gene or you were not...and I definitely did not have it (this is something I frequently hear from other photographers).
This belief reinforced my conclusion that photography was the perfect art form for me. While it was creative, it was also technical.
I decided that I could compensate for my lack of creative ability by excelling in the technical.
Looking back at that now, it seems like a silly thing to believe, but that’s what I thought...or perhaps what I hoped.
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Men Watching Construction - 1970
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I had been self-taught but now I was planning to attend College for a formal photographic education. But unexpectedly I had this jarring epiphany: if I chose photography as a career, it might become "just a job" and I could lose my passion for it. I didn't want that and so I chose a career in business and planned on pursuing photography as a passion in my spare time.
What I didn't know is that while raising a family and building a career, there would be little spare time left for photography. And so for the next 30 years, my personal photography largely languished.
Fast forward to 2004: my children are older, I have a little more free time and digital photography is making its way onto the scene. I decide that I’m now ready to return to photography and learn digital.
And so I picked up right where I left off: pursuing photography as a technical art and
turning out average images that looked just like everyone else's. They were technically good and followed the rules of composition but they were mundane and soulless. They could have filled a calendar of cliché images quite nicely, but they didn't fill my soul.
I also began entering contests and started to win, which was exciting...at first. But I noticed that winning didn't change my life and it didn't make me any happier...and in fact the opposite seemed to be true.
Winning was leaving me with this empty feeling and I wasn't sure why.
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Vered Galor
About this time I made friends with an artist, Vered Galor, who became my mentor. She and I could not have been more different: she was an artist who created using photography and I was a technically oriented photographer who documented. These differences were the basis for many a “spirited discussion” about photography and art. Vered would encourage me to be creative and I’d resist, telling her that I thought it was a photographic sin to “manipulate” an image.
Looking back, the truth was that I didn't know how to create and I didn't believe that I had it in me. I told myself that I wasn't creative for so long, that it had become a fact.
Fortunately, Vered was stronger willed than I was and she kept pushing me to move beyond documenting. Slowly I started down the path by first desiring to be creative and then by believing it was possible.
One thing that I did to help me remember my goal of becoming an artist, was to change the words that I used. For example, instead of saying that I was a photographer I would tell people that I was an artist who used photography. You cannot imagine how phony I felt doing this! I could barely call myself an artist without feeling guilty and blushing.
But it reminded me of what I wanted to become.
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My focus on being creative was starting to work and I soon began "creating images" more often than "taking pictures." The Angel Gabriel was the first image that I consciously “created” and it remains to this day one of my best images.
Thanks to Vered's influence, I had started to transform from photographer to artist. I wish you could have known me back then so that you could appreciate the magnitude of the transformation that has taken place.
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What about this idea that some people are just more creative than others? Look at artists such as Weston, Cunningham, Parks and Maier...they seem more creative than the average photographer.
Perhaps these artists are more creative because they have focused on their creative side more. I spent 50 years focusing on the technical and my creativity atrophied. Can I really expect to be their creative equal after only a few years practice?
If you want to be creative, focus on the creative.
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Finding My Vision
Several years ago I was attending Review Santa Fe where over the course of a day my work was evaluated by a number of gallery owners, curators, publishers and “experts” in the field.
During the last review of a very long day, the reviewer quickly looked at my work, brusquely pushed it back to me and said “It looks like you’re trying to copy Ansel Adams.” I replied that I was, because I loved his work! He then said something that would change my life:
“Ansel’s already done Ansel and you’re not going to do him any better. What can you create that shows your unique vision?”
Those words really stung, but over the next two years the message did sink in: Was it my life’s ambition to be known as the world’s best Ansel Adams imitator? Had I no higher aspirations than that?
I desperately wanted to know if I had a Vision, but there was a huge problem: what exactly was Vision and how did I develop it?
I researched Vision but I couldn’t relate to the definitions and explanations that I found. Was it a look, a style or a technique? Was it something you were born with or something you developed?
And then there was the nagging doubt: what if I didn’t have a Vision? I feared that it was something you either “had” or you “didn’t have” and perhaps I did not?
And how was I to go about finding my Vision?
With so many unanswered questions and with no idea on how to proceed, I simply forged ahead with what made sense to me. I came up with 10 ideas that would help me determine if I had a Vision.
I really was proceeding blindly, but I believed that if I listened to my own desires, pursued what I loved and eliminated all other voices, I would learn something about my Vision.
I did this for two years and there were many times that I became discouraged and didn’t feel like I was making any progress. I didn’t really know what I expected to happen, perhaps I thought I’d have a revelatory experience where my Vision would suddenly appear in a moment of inspiration!
But that didn’t happen.
And then one day it just occurred to me: I understood…I understood what my Vision was.
It came in an anti-climatic and quiet moment of understanding, and after all of that worrying and angst…it now seemed so incredibly simple. Vision was not something I needed to acquire or develop, it had been there all along and all that I needed to do was to “discover” it.
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Vision is simply how you see the world!
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Vision was simply the sum total of my life experiences that caused me to see the world in a unique way. When I looked at a scene and imagined it a certain way…that was my vision.
My Vision had always been there, but over the years it had been obscured by what I call “Vision Blockers.” Some of my Vision Blockers were:
- Valuing other people's opinions over my own
- Imitating other photographer's work, look or style
- Creating for recognition
- Following the rules
- Conforming
- Caring what others think of my work
Once I learned to "let go" of all of these bad habits and insecurities, my Vision was set free. It was no longer constrained by rules, expectations or dishonest motives. It was such a great feeling to know that I could do anything that I wanted, nothing or no one could hold me back.
After finding my Vision and living with it for a while, I came to conclude that Vision has little to do with photography or art, but has more to do with being a well-adjusted, confident and independent human being. Once I had the confidence to pursue my art on my terms, I was free to pursue my Vision without fear of rejection or need for acceptance.
Something else I learned about Vision: it is not a look or a style. It does not force you to focus on one subject or genre and following your Vision will not make all your work look the same.
Vision gives you the freedom to pursue any subject, create in any style and do anything that you want.
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Wanting More Than Winning Ribbons and Earning Likes
I talked about how winning was increasingly leaving me with this empty and hollow feeling. The problem I concluded, were my motives. I wasn't creating for myself, but rather I was creating for validation, accolades and wins.
When I created for accolades, my motives were not "honest" because I was creating for the wrong reasons. And when I created for other's approval, the images were not really mine.
I wanted to love my work even if other people did not. I wanted my opinion of my images to be the only one that mattered.
Learning to do this was hard and uncomfortable work, it required me to honestly evaluate my motives. At one point I asked myself this question:
If I had to choose between creating images that I loved,
or images that sold and won accolades, which would I choose?
It was really, really hard to be completely honest with myself, and it still is. I love the win, the attention, the likes...but if that is the reason why I create, then my work will not fulfill me and it will fail to convey conviction to the viewer.
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The Road to Nowhere No. 1
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Sometimes I still create dishonest images, and each time I see them I feel a pang of guilt. The Road to Nowhere No. 1 (above) is one such image (but that's a story for a future article).
Conclusion
What I've learned and believe is:
- We all have the ability to be creative, even the biggest, nerdiest, technical photo nut among us. Even those who insist they are not creative. Even those who have just read this article and still insist they are not creative.
- We all have a Vision, in fact you cannot not have a Vision. Vision is simply how you see the world when you strip away all of your Vision Blockers.
- Creating images for yourself and images that you love will bring meaning and satisfaction to your photography that far outlasts accolades, wins and likes.
If you find yourself where I was 15 years ago, and you want more...then I'm here to tell you that it's possible.
How do you get started? Try reading my article on "
How I found My Vision
" for some ideas on how to proceed.
Cole
P.S. And after reading the article,
please
don't write to tell me how much you disagree with Photographic Celibacy! I know, I know, I know!
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New "Dunes of Nude" Images from Mesquite Dunes
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Death Valley Dune and Mountain No. 2
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I love Death Valley and I love the Mesquite Dunes most of all. My Dad couldn't understand why I kept going back to Death Valley, he once said to me: "I drove through there once and there was nothing to see!"
I love going in the winter, when the temps and crowds are down.
I photograph the dunes in the first and last light of the day. But sometimes I'll go in the middle of the day and just lay in the warm sand and sleep, think or listen to music.
I created my first "Dunes of Nude" image in 2006. I was photographing the dunes up close and they reminded me of the nude human body, and hence the title for this project.
This trip to the dunes felt different than the many before it. I felt very in touch with the dunes and was seeing well.
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Where You Can See Me Next
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Lone Man No. 70
Here's where I'll be speaking (and holding workshops at some locations) this upcoming year:
- 3/2020 Watch your newsstand or mailbox (if you're subscribed). To what you ask? You'll have to wait and see.
- 4/4/2020 - I'll be presenting at the Light and Creativity Workshop hosted by the Harrisburg Camera Club.
- 4/23/2020 I'll be speaking and doing a workshop at the annual conference for the Photographic Society of New Zealand in Christchurch
- 7/23/2020 Speaking at the Camera Club of Bozeman, MT. Why Black and White?
- 7/24/2020 Workshop at The Camera Club of Bozeman, MT. How I Found and Followed My Vision.
- 9/2020 I'll be visiting my son in La Paz, Bolivia and I'd love to find a group to present to while I'm there.
- 10/22/2020 Presenting "Why Black and White" at the Southwest Missouri Camera Club in Springfield, MO.
- 4/21/2021 Speaking at the Essex Photo Club in Caldwell, NJ. Why Black and White (and why Vision is the only thing that matters)
If you know of a Photography group who would like to have me speak and they're near the Bozeman, Springfield, Caldwell or La Paz locations and dates, please have them email me at:
Cole@ColeThompsonPhotography.com
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Badwater No.1
The winner of my last drawing is
Bill Lutrick w
ho will be receiving a print of Moai, Sitting for Portrait No. 36.
Ironically Bill had written me back in 2015 to tell me how he too had read Thor Heyerdahl's book "Aku Aku" and how much he loved my Moai portraits.
Congratulations Bill! Please contact me and arrange for your print to be delivered.
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Thank you for looking and for entering!
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