Subject vs Mood

Photography is more about mood than subject. This is how I feel today, at this moment. What do you think?

Things Can Change

Here's something I recently came across that I had written about a month before I started doing photography. It reads:

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It's funny how at certain times, life seems to make so much sense, and at other times, I could be so completely far away from undersanding it at all. It definatly makes sense when I'm involved in making some kind of music, or when I'm driving with a solid destination in mind. But that is probably because those are the times when I'm not thinking about it. Those are my escapes. The only time life makes sense is when I'm not confronting it.

My bigest fear in life is that I won't do it, break through. I know I can. I'm wating for myself. Waiting for myself to be ready. I don't know what's taking me so long. Could be fear, that's usually what it is.

I think I have a different point of view. I can't express it personally, need to do it through the music. I hate that I can't express it personally. Nobody has even the slightest idea of what I have. They see me as straight line. Nothing there, no fire. They don't really know the definition of fire. To them, fire is external, that's the only way they can see it or comprehend it. If you don't get burned, it must not be very hot. If it's internal, and covered up, they refuse to believe it even exists.

I think I have talent in the following areas:
Music, writing, art.
I'm not a scientist. I love science, but I'm not a scientist. I look to science to find art.

Well geez, I've been silent for way to long...

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Yes, things can change.

Mundane Subjects

Are there really mundane subjects in photographs? To be mundane or not to be mundane is really relative to the artist's life experience. I think what allows certain artists to bring a mundane subject to life is of course, how he or she looks at it, not the object itself. Taking past life experience and applying it to the subject in a personal way is what defines how the subject will come alive. 

I mean, if you take the entire human race as a whole, with all of its cumulative perspectives and points of view, I think it might be safe to say that there are NO mundane subjects at all.  Anywhere.

Which brings up another thought. Guys like Ansel are pretty cool, because they so perfectly bring their vision to us and make us see things in new and amazing ways. But I think there's a negative side to these great artists also: They tend to force us to believe that their vision is the ultimate, the best way, the only way. And some of us run in circles, trying to see if WE can do what they did, rather than acting on our own unique visions. Well yeah, it's a difficult thing to do, to create a new "universal" vision. But who says it has to be universal? I think there are many potential artists out there who will never try at all because they're so worried that they'll never be able to compete with the big guys, and that's really a sad thing. 

JT

Galleries

It's true that I am indeed interested in experimenting with the gallery thing a little, just to see what it's like. It seems like a real challenge to get your work in some of those "big" galleries. On the other hand, that's all very insignificant to the real reason I do photography in the first place, that is to get out to the desert (or where ever) and capture the images themselves.

When I get out there, there's motion, danger, heat, excitement. But in a gallery, what do you have? A nice air-conditioned room with white walls and images hung perfectly in a row. Such a COMPLETE contrast to the atmosphere of the original act of obtaining the images. My idea of a gallery show is to hang the images on the outside of my jeep, drive at least 100 MPH, and require the visitors to drive along side me to see the images. Then they would better understand my mindset.

Maybe that would increase sales a little too.

JT