On Photography — Why it’s important to rise to the challenge.
To clarify a few points, I contacted the Canadian Embassy almost one year before my exhibition took place and a few months after I reserved my place on the tour to photograph polar bears in Churchill. I believe that the main reason the Embassy took my proposal seriously was because I had already committed myself to going to Churchill.
Also, I did have to show them some examples of my past work.
Photo by John McInnes
If I had told them that I was thinking of going to Churchill to photograph polar bears and I was wondering if they would be interested in hosting an exhibition, I think I would have gotten a very different reaction.
Instead, I told them that I had already made my reservations and I was planning to hold an exhibition in Tokyo and that I would like to hold my exhibition at the Embassy. If they said no there are plenty of small galleries around Tokyo where I could have rented out space. However, it would have been a lot more expensive, and the turnout would have been much smaller.
I can make an analogy comparing sharing your articles on your own website as opposed to using a platform like Medium. If I had rented out art space, my exhibition would have been much shorter, and the turnout would have been limited to my very small network of friends in Tokyo. The Embassy, on the other hand, had a much larger network. The opening reception alone attracted more than 100 people and the exhibition lasted one month.
I’m very happy the Canadian Embassy said yes.
So, what did I learned from this experience? Opportunities happen from action, not inaction. I met a lot of influential people at the events that I photographed at the Embassy. On one occasion, I met the Editor-in-Chief of and English language weekly newspaper. I wanted to show him some of my photographs hoping that he might be interested in publishing some, so I arranged to meet him in his office. He liked my photos, but he asked me a question that threw me for a bit of a loop. “These are good photos but where’s the story?”
“Story?”
“I guess I naively thought that he might be interested in publishing my photos on their artistic merit alone but that rarely happens. He was still encouraging though. He told me to come back with a story for my photos and he would consider the story and photos for the newspaper’s travel section.
I had been planning on taking a winter holiday to Thailand, so his challenge gave me more of a purpose than just lying on the beach and drinking copious amounts of Singha beer.
However, at that stage of my life (in the late 90s) writing scared the hell out of me. I thought I was a pretty good photographer but to put the written word down on a piece of paper for other people to read…well, I just didn’t want any part of that.
But, I realized, that if I wanted to get my photos published, writing was an inevitability.
I did my research. I read as many travel articles as I could find as well as “how to” articles. I decided that floating markets in Thailand would be a good topic, so I included a side trip to Damnoen Saduak, west of Bangkok during my vacation. I came back to Tokyo with a suitcase full of notes and I even took a small tape recorder with me so I could include few quotes from the locals. Quotes from local shop owners or residents are an essential part of most travel articles. It tells the reader that you are providing them with more information than they could typically get from a guidebook: an essential part of travel writing.
Over the next month I wrote, re-wrote and re-wrote again more drafts than I care to admit. I did have a computer, but I liked writing in pencil on paper (and I still do). I’m sorry to say that I think I destroyed a small rain forest with the amount of paper I went through.
Self Portrait
I submitted a 700-word article to the newspaper. It was far from being a great travel piece, but it was good enough to be published. Since then, the newspaper has published many of my travel pieces and in the early 2000s, they offered me a monthly column writing about foreign cuisine: Diplomatic Cookbook.
In conclusion, I guess my main message is to “rise up to the challenge”. If I hadn’t gone to Churchill, I wouldn’t have had an exhibition at the Embassy, I wouldn’t have developed a relationship with the Canadian Embassy and I wouldn’t have met the Editor-in-Chief who gave me the opportunity to start writing and if none of that had happened, I would be sitting here still being afraid of writing.
On regrets
If someone tells you they have no regrets in life, they are lying to you and they are lying to themselves. We all have regrets but that doesn’t mean you should be unhappy with where you are right now. I have many regrets: I regret that I didn’t study photography or journalism in university; I regret waiting until 1991 before coming to Japan; I regret not studying Japanese harder when I came here (my Japanese is terrible) and I kind of regret having that third cup of coffee this morning. Yes, I have many regrets in life but I really like where I am now.
Looking back, I have more regrets about things I didn’t do than about things I did do and failed. And if you fail, move onto the next opportunity. I’ve always liked the quote by Richard Branson: “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
I’ve been a member of Medium since February and this is my twenty-first article; so far, my views (per article) have not reached double digits which is kind of sad. Not really sure what the problem is: wrong keywords maybe. If my articles were bad or not interesting, I think I would at least be getting views but with no reading time. If any of my colleagues out there read this and think it is worth sharing, please do…but regardless, I will persevere.
As I quoted on my postcard: “Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.”
