Shades Of O’Keeffe?
The Role Of Play And Experimentation
I wrote about interesting outtakes and candid documentary photographs the other day within the context of The Marilyn Project. Within some of these outtakes I mentioned there are photographs that may not fit within the project but are worthy of consideration in their own right. Below is an outtake from the work I made with Jenny No/3. It is not at all what I envisioned or intended making for this project. It was an accident within the common set of cirumstances I setup for what I did intend to photograph.
During this particular session their were multiple outtakes that had similar characteristics to the photo above. Similar in not only in cause, the up-draft and limited dexterity to control the dress, but also in visual effect. I immediately noticed the abstract flower-like impression in quite a few frames.
The intent of the project lead to my first thought — shades of Georgia O’Keeffe, interesting. My second thought was amusing, O’keeffe in reverse. Instead of various flora giving an impression of female iconography, it was female iconography of another sort giving the impression of flora.
To early in the process to say if any of these will be represented in final prints but I do feel they may have a place in the book, not as background documentary but designed in as primary art. This is especially the case since there were many occasions during work with other participants where the same set of circumstances produced similar results while attempting to get the bottom of the dress under control for the images that we had intended to make.
It may be obvious here in retrospect that these work within the context of what was originally envisioned. Maybe not. What does come to mind though is the importance of play and experimentation in personal work, work that does not have a client with a tight set of restrictions and requirements. Personal work is supposed to go places you don’t often go and produce results that are different than your norm or even different from what you may have intended. Allowing for that possibility, being open to it, even encouraging it can open up many possibilities and new avenues to explore.
There are many subtle and not so subtle things one can do to shut this play and experimentation down instead of letting it happen. I could have just not taken the shot, that’s the easiest way to stamp out any experimentation or serendipity. The psychology of when you do and don’t release the shutter can be tougher to overcome than you might think. The antidote is an open mind and having that sense of play going into any situation.
Of course there are more overt measures one could take as well. After observing the conditions producing results that were’t originally intended you could take measures to minimize or eliminate those results the next time. I easily could have minimized the possibility of these results with the next participant and everyone thereafter. That would make logical sense since what I originally envisioned was something far closer to the original iconic image of Marilyn M. with a few twists. Doing so would make it more efficient to get those.
I attempt to try new things and new approaches constantly in personal work. I do my best to encourage a sense of play in myself when doing so. I even do things wrong on purpose. I take out of focus pictures on purpose, I try not to force what may have been in my head if something else is happening in front of the camera, I even plan things I think will fail. In many cases they do fail. Those things fail to work in terms of producing photographs that I’ll use but they succeed in producing new ideas, or roads to go down I may have never thought of.
Play is good for art. Play is good for idea generation. Play sometimes even restults in the production of something wonderful, better than what you could have planned out to the last detail.
