Practice, Practice, Practice - Rolls 127-129

Every once in a while I rediscover an artist whose work I previously enjoyed but who I'd lost track of over time. Two weeks ago I experienced one of those moments, finding myself poring over Alec Soth's portfolio and marveling at the various ways he has realized his vision in photos of odd people and interesting locations. To my eye he is clearly following in the footsteps of photographers like Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld, but his work has a clarity of purpose, both aesthetically and conceptually, that is all his own. Now, I will never say that my work is at the level of Shore or Sternfeld, but there was something about Soth's photos that made me realize just how big the gap is between myself and the pros. Although I have spent the past five years refining my understanding of the Ordered World, I don't yet have the precision of technique to pull off what Soth or Curran Hatleberg can do with their lens. And that's alright! Of course I'm not at the same place as professionals who have spent their careers dedicated to their art; I'm still in the beginning of my creative life, and I have plenty of time to grow. I am committed to reaching those heights, however, and the most consistent way I've found to do this is to keep taking photos. During the month of November last year, following the period of rapid growth that was September and October, I indeed continued to take lots of photos (shooting 15 rolls compared to 13 in October) but found myself missing the mark more often than not. As a result, I will be writing about more rolls at a time than I did previously, but I am not disheartened by this! All the effort I spent in that month, all the explorations and good photos and failed attempts, are simply part of the journey, and they became valuable practice for me as I worked to continue What My Left Hand is Doing and push myself to the next level!

As is probably apparent throughout my writing so far, boundaries of time like seasons or months matter to me greatly. When October came to an end I could sense the potential for a slowing down of my work approaching, and I fought this feeling by almost immediately going out and shooting a roll. It probably wasn't the smartest idea to choose an expired slide film for this first shoot of November, though, and while the photos themselves aren't terrible, I haven't yet made a decent scan of them, so I'm going to disregard that roll and move on. That Friday, however, I did think of a place to go that I wanted to try photographing, and after work I headed over (after a couple cursory photos on the way) to Tutt Cemetery on Cleveland Road. Not unlike in Mishawaka, there are a string of different cemeteries along this road, and I'd photographed most of them during the summer. It therefore made sense for me to see what I could find at Tutt Cemetery, and I took ten photos here, trying every composition I could in the hopes of getting one solid photo. It turns out that I could have stopped after number three, as that was the one that worked the best! My subjects are a few headstones on the edge of the property, where trees and the neighboring house form a backdrop against which the worn stone stands out proudly. Even the broken headstones resting on the larger one contribute to this notion of dignity, as if these old comrades continue to support each other in their old age. The muted browns and greens further give the impression of slow decay, and over everything hangs the all-important sense of quiet calm that I love. As the start to another period of my work I am very pleased with this photo, and it enabled me to move forward confidently into November!

Tutt Cemetery, South Bend, Indiana.

I am quite happy that I found something good at Tutt Cemetery that time, because getting back onto the main road was hell; the walls block the view of the street, and I felt like I was risking an accident just turning right! With that mini crisis averted, I made my way back to Mishawaka Avenue, where I had seen the potential for a few more shots, and finished the roll there. In the best of these I used a clump of telephone poles to subframe the scene, cutting the composition roughly in half and placing different elements (the big tree to the left, the Armory tower to the right) inside of the diagonal power lines. Although I am usually drawn to a specific subject, I sometimes see the potential of "nothing" photos like this, and as I finished my shooting for the day it felt good to bring a facet of the Ordered World out of a random assortment of plants, poles, and concrete. I wasn't fully back into the rhythm of creating yet, but I put in the effort, and I'm happy to have a few good photos to show for it.

Mishawaka Avenue, South Bend, Indiana.

Whatever I can say about my hit rate, I still felt the drive and desire to photograph incessantly, and so the next day, my cleaning of the apartment finished, I drove up to St Joseph, with the intent of finding different things to shoot in this familiar area. After checking out a local cemetery (nice in theory, but with crooked telephone poles that don't line up nicely with the horizon) I went to nearby Benton Harbor, where I found a parking lot that caught my attention, one crisscrossed by power lines cutting through the bright blue sky. My choice of Ektar benefits this scene, playing up the subtle oranges of the surrounding buildings, and my compositional technique is also solid, once again letting the power lines form a grid into which I placed little details of interest. Contrasting with this wide-open environment is a photo I took while heading south, when I stopped at a seemingly abandoned Chinese restaurant that I had noticed on my way up. Instead of clear sky, trees and underbrush fill in a dense background that accentuates the rectangular form and easy-to-read lettering of "Lee's Hunan Restaurant," although the red color of the text matches the fall foliage well. Even the surface similarities, the omnipresent power lines, function differently here; where they divide the photo into intentional sections in Benton Harbor, here they simply add to the abstract randomness of the forest, emphasizing that the sign is the focus of this shot. This is a benefit of exploring a wide area when I'm out shooting—I have the chance to try varied compositions and see different sights that, while distinct, all fall into place as representations of my artistic vision. The parking lot and the sign at the edge of the forest required different compositional solutions, but ultimately they both remain part of the Ordered World in my mind.

Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Lee's Hunan Restaurant, Near Shoreham, Michigan.

I could have stopped there, as I finished off my last few shots of the roll at the restaurant. However, I didn't feel satisfied that I had sufficiently explored the possibilities of this location, so I loaded another roll and took a few more photos here. None of them are as good as the one of the sign, but with another roll started, I headed to Stevensville to retake photos at several of the locations that I had liked but not captured well when I was there a few weeks prior. Chief among these was a set of abandoned buildings at the end of an alley, and I succeeded in making not one, but three photos here that compel me. The first two are reminiscent of Extractions—straight-on, with lots of gritty detail in the brick and sidewalk, but with various objects (the electrical box in the first, the fire hydrant in the second) grounding the photos in reality instead of becoming an abstract wash of color and lines. Stepping back and including a bit of the road was the right decision here, and I improved on my original attempt, where I had gotten in close and removed too many interesting details. If these had been the only shots I took there, I would have been totally happy!

Stevensville, Michigan.

Stevensville, Michigan.

However, while walking along the side of the building towards the main street, I got a closer look at a section of the wall that I had previously missed, and which now compelled me to take a photo. On one side of the composition is a door with a tiny American flag sticker, while on the other side a "No Admittance" sign confronts the viewer with its harsh command. I find this photo very interesting for all the normal reasons, of course; the riot of different textures and the pleasing color combination of reds, blues, and whites are already enough reason to take the shot. But this image is elevated by the implied political questions raised by the signage—is America the place of No Admittance, or does it stand opposed to that idea? Should we perceive different elements of our society as forming a broader picture of our culture, or can we separate the good (here, the flag as a symbol of freedom and acceptance*) from the bad (the tacit notion of who No Admittance might refer to)? Even if we can separate these ideas, won't one always overshadow the other? Rarely does my work touch on these questions, but taking this photo showed me that even in my particular photographic vision, devoid of people and the bustle of life, I am able to occasionally make a statement that means something, that gets me thinking. Here is another piece of growth that I experienced in making What My Left Hand is Doing, and it makes me excited to see how these concepts might develop in the future!

No Admittance—Stevensville, Michigan.

With most of the roll finished and my desire to reshoot (and discover new things) in Stevensville satiated, I began to head home, staying alert for a place to take the last few photos for the day. In typical me fashion, an electrical substation seemed like the right place to stop, and I took three photos of the landscape there, giant towers and power lines overlooking cornfields and the station itself. Two of these are successful in their simplicity—I present the scene as it appeared, without anything special in regards to composition or exposure. It felt nice to take some "easy" photos here at the end of my shooting after all the interesting places I had found, but I don't think that takes away from the quality of these images; sometimes the simple approach works just fine! And as a representation of where I was artistically, the day's efforts show that despite the changing seasons I was still going strong, still knew what I was doing. I can't shake the feeling that my November shooting produced slightly diminished returns, but the important thing is that I didn't give up, and I am still proud of what I made during that time!

AEP Baroda Substation, Baroda Township, Michigan.

Baroda Township, Michigan.

*For the record, I don't really see the flag as truly representing anything good, but for the purposes of this photo, especially in conversation with the No Admittance sign, it makes sense for me to consider what it is supposed to mean.