from yesterday's fun & gamesSincerely,
Zave Smith
Showing posts with label doctors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctors. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
I Am Not A Doctor
I am not a doctor like my brother, nor a teacher like my spouse. I have saved no one from hell nor created a web 2.0 business. I am just a photographer. I’m not even a hell bent to save the world photojournalist. For I am just an ad guy. I create images that help sell products. Or, as one of my favorite creative directors once said, “We create landfill”.
Luckily, the pictures I create do have a certain power. Somewhere between my studio and the city dump, millions of people see my work. For a brief moment while filliping pages and dismissing come-ons for things they don’t really need, my pictures reach out catch their eye and make them smile. For the power of my images is their ability to tell the universal story of our pleasures and our pains. It is this power of affirmation that helps us all feel human again.
If the beauty of my photographs can create so many smiles in people across the globe I am doing something very worthwhile.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Between Two Worlds
I LIVE ON A FENCE BETWEEN TWO VERY DIFFERENT WORLDS. On my right side exists a world of noise, speed, bright lights, money and seduction. On my left side, a world that is like a small pond enclosed by rocks, where small stones of ideas send ripples into motion.
I LIKE LIVING ON THIS FENCE. The world on my right side gives me a headache when I spend too much time there. The world on the left needs the energy from the right else the waters become too smooth to be of any interest to me.
Staying balanced on my fence between these two worlds would not that hard except that the worlds don’t always stay on my left and my right. Most of the time, they are spinning around with such speed that I can’t always tell where they are.
While on set this balancing act becomes very interesting and necessary. In the world on the right, where my clients live, there are long lists of things that are needed from me. These lists of dreams, ideas, and inspirations are sometimes very clear, sometimes they make no sense, and often they are in conflict with each other. At times like this it becomes important to find the world on my left and take a moment to take nourishment there. This nourishment is what gives me the ideas and the fortitude to solve the problems in the world on my right. These two worlds, so different, feed each other.
I have been shooting a lot of stock photography this winter both for my stock agencies and for private, company held, stock libraries. Shooting stock can become a numbers game. There is a lot of pressure to work faster and to count a day’s success in terms of the number of shots finished. While the pressure to make the days numbers can give a lot of energy to a set I believe that this numbers game can lead to making pictures that show instead of say something. Chasing numbers forces us to see with our head instead of with our eyes.
People forget facts, and anyway, they’ve seen it all before. Facts are transient, but a good story can last forever. Do you remember how many times you went sledding as a kid? Probably not. But I bet you remember the thrill of the ride, the smell of the snow, the cold and wet whiteness turning your face red, and the triumph in braving winter’s wind. Great pictures tell stories and a story’s authenticity resides in the beauty of the details. A great picture cries out to us to enter its world and become intoxicated.
I have received many thank you notes and comments about these newsletters. I truly appreciate them. We love hearing from you.
I LIKE LIVING ON THIS FENCE. The world on my right side gives me a headache when I spend too much time there. The world on the left needs the energy from the right else the waters become too smooth to be of any interest to me.
Staying balanced on my fence between these two worlds would not that hard except that the worlds don’t always stay on my left and my right. Most of the time, they are spinning around with such speed that I can’t always tell where they are.
While on set this balancing act becomes very interesting and necessary. In the world on the right, where my clients live, there are long lists of things that are needed from me. These lists of dreams, ideas, and inspirations are sometimes very clear, sometimes they make no sense, and often they are in conflict with each other. At times like this it becomes important to find the world on my left and take a moment to take nourishment there. This nourishment is what gives me the ideas and the fortitude to solve the problems in the world on my right. These two worlds, so different, feed each other.
I have been shooting a lot of stock photography this winter both for my stock agencies and for private, company held, stock libraries. Shooting stock can become a numbers game. There is a lot of pressure to work faster and to count a day’s success in terms of the number of shots finished. While the pressure to make the days numbers can give a lot of energy to a set I believe that this numbers game can lead to making pictures that show instead of say something. Chasing numbers forces us to see with our head instead of with our eyes.
People forget facts, and anyway, they’ve seen it all before. Facts are transient, but a good story can last forever. Do you remember how many times you went sledding as a kid? Probably not. But I bet you remember the thrill of the ride, the smell of the snow, the cold and wet whiteness turning your face red, and the triumph in braving winter’s wind. Great pictures tell stories and a story’s authenticity resides in the beauty of the details. A great picture cries out to us to enter its world and become intoxicated.
I have received many thank you notes and comments about these newsletters. I truly appreciate them. We love hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
2/2007
Winter
Winter is the season of long shadows and short shooting days. It is when the earth is brown with patches of dark green and the sky can be so cold and blue. Nature becomes transparent in winter; you can see a long way through the barren hillsides. Winter with its sharp angles and lines that reach to the sky is a time for taking stock of what was and dreaming of what is ahead.
So what am I dreaming about this winter? I am dreaming that around the world, cooler heads will preside and we can get back to the task of creating for and selling to each other instead of fearing one another. I am dreaming of a time when the headline on the evening news will be about an opening at the art museum. I am dreaming of a time when it will take months and months to buy a gun and only an hour to renew a passport. I am dreaming of a time when we greet each other by saying, “How can I help you.” But my biggest dream for 2005 is to continue creating images that make people smile, laugh or just connect with their inner humanity.
This fall was a busy time at the studio. We just finished creating a private stock library for Vanguard. We also shot a series of environmental portraits for Town Motors and a packaging project for Pfizer. Did you receive our mailed poster? If not, and if you would like one, just let me know.
Thank you all for a great year, let us all keep dreaming.
So what am I dreaming about this winter? I am dreaming that around the world, cooler heads will preside and we can get back to the task of creating for and selling to each other instead of fearing one another. I am dreaming of a time when the headline on the evening news will be about an opening at the art museum. I am dreaming of a time when it will take months and months to buy a gun and only an hour to renew a passport. I am dreaming of a time when we greet each other by saying, “How can I help you.” But my biggest dream for 2005 is to continue creating images that make people smile, laugh or just connect with their inner humanity.
This fall was a busy time at the studio. We just finished creating a private stock library for Vanguard. We also shot a series of environmental portraits for Town Motors and a packaging project for Pfizer. Did you receive our mailed poster? If not, and if you would like one, just let me know.
Thank you all for a great year, let us all keep dreaming.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
1/07
Jazz Band
Recently I have become a groupie of my son’s jazz band. I have watched these very young musicians go from performance to performance. Sometimes they create musical magic and some evenings I want to cover my ears.
We tend to think that photography is a visual art. We end up with an object that we look at. This final object is fixed. Once there, it does not change. But photo shoots I believe are much more akin to performance art than visual art. We gather a group of creative people; they work together and hopefully produce some magic.
The difference between my son’s young quintet and my work is that on my shoots we must always produce magic. There is no room in advertising photography for “off” days, mediocre performance or uninspired playing. So how do we guarantee that all days are great days? I believe it comes down to planning, flexibility and ambition.
Planning starts with a through understanding of the project. I find it helps not only to see the layouts but also to hear the strategy behind the layouts. That way if changes need to be made on the set, I can always compare the visuals with the strategy to make sure we are doing the right thing. By planning I am referring to casting, propping, location scouting and all the astetic considerations that can make a shoot wonderful. Good planning means that the logistics of a shoot are as well thought out as the concepts.
Flexibility is important because even with the best planning, problems and opportunities may arise. Problems are everywhere and can usually be overcome. Opportunities are rarer but offer the greatest rewards. Often time, on shoots, an art director or photographer discovers something that is different than the layout but actually tells a much better story. The issue becomes, does the creative team have the time, the resources and the power to follow this new visual idea? If flexibility is part of the planning and you know the strategy behind the layout, that answer can often be yes.
Watching my son’s band rehearsals, their blind ambition and determination to get better, reminds me of my student days, days when I would spend hours staring at my work, trying to understand it and how to make it better. When one acquires a certain level of mastery it is easy to forget about the power of determination and ambition. Visual success often comes so easily and the pressures of time and budget can seem to force a shoot to keep moving on to the next scene. If making that truly magic photograph is the goal, ambition and determination are needed to make sure that every detail of the plan is complete. Ambition and determination also help to recognize and seize that opportunity to truly make magic. The successful photograph depends on planning, flexibility and ambition.
This spring has been a very busy one for us. We have recently completed projects for Proctor and Gamble, PNC, and Shire.
We tend to think that photography is a visual art. We end up with an object that we look at. This final object is fixed. Once there, it does not change. But photo shoots I believe are much more akin to performance art than visual art. We gather a group of creative people; they work together and hopefully produce some magic.
The difference between my son’s young quintet and my work is that on my shoots we must always produce magic. There is no room in advertising photography for “off” days, mediocre performance or uninspired playing. So how do we guarantee that all days are great days? I believe it comes down to planning, flexibility and ambition.
Planning starts with a through understanding of the project. I find it helps not only to see the layouts but also to hear the strategy behind the layouts. That way if changes need to be made on the set, I can always compare the visuals with the strategy to make sure we are doing the right thing. By planning I am referring to casting, propping, location scouting and all the astetic considerations that can make a shoot wonderful. Good planning means that the logistics of a shoot are as well thought out as the concepts.
Flexibility is important because even with the best planning, problems and opportunities may arise. Problems are everywhere and can usually be overcome. Opportunities are rarer but offer the greatest rewards. Often time, on shoots, an art director or photographer discovers something that is different than the layout but actually tells a much better story. The issue becomes, does the creative team have the time, the resources and the power to follow this new visual idea? If flexibility is part of the planning and you know the strategy behind the layout, that answer can often be yes.
Watching my son’s band rehearsals, their blind ambition and determination to get better, reminds me of my student days, days when I would spend hours staring at my work, trying to understand it and how to make it better. When one acquires a certain level of mastery it is easy to forget about the power of determination and ambition. Visual success often comes so easily and the pressures of time and budget can seem to force a shoot to keep moving on to the next scene. If making that truly magic photograph is the goal, ambition and determination are needed to make sure that every detail of the plan is complete. Ambition and determination also help to recognize and seize that opportunity to truly make magic. The successful photograph depends on planning, flexibility and ambition.
This spring has been a very busy one for us. We have recently completed projects for Proctor and Gamble, PNC, and Shire.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
4/07
Life is a Beach
One of the pleasures about being a photographer is that our creative life is not client dependent. For example, my shooting schedule does not vary that greatly between the times when the studio is busy with clients and those times in between. I am constantly shooting and exploring my visual world.
So where does the inspiration come from? Last week I was stuck in traffic on Chicago’s infamous Eden’s freeway when I heard somebody on the radio say the phrase: “Fragile Beauty.” Those words struck a chord, which I will explore photographically. Later that day, Nancy Morey from Cramer-Krasselt asked me, “What have you been thinking about?” We talked for a while about the relationship between abstraction and universality. Both these encounters will somehow work their way into my pictures.
For me inspiration can also come from an inspiring model. I will meet somebody at a casting and will find their look, and more importantly, their personality, captivating. I will then develop shooting scripts around what intrigues me about them. The script ideas often come from my day-to-day life. I then set the scene and let the talent act it out. It is during this acting that I seek to catch the spark of life.
To catch this spark I often expand the emotional gestalt of a shoot by having the talent playing the scene from several points of view. If I am after a romantic couple I will also have the couple act as if the are angry, mad, contemplative or bored. By swinging back and forth through different emotions the talent will often reach a truer sense of their feelings. This exercise also builds trust between the models. Most of our emotions are not pure, they have many shades, many sides, and they are complicated. Powerful photography has that sense of the complicated nature of our emotional lives.
Trust is a key feeling in selling. Building trust on the set I believe is key to building trust in a photograph. By giving our talent as real of a world as possible to act in, they more easily enter into their roles. One of the neat things about shooting digitally for example, is that the talent and the clients can see the scenes take shape on a large monitor. Once they see how great it looks, their trust factor and their confidence goes way up which helps to enhance the success of a shoot. Like baseball, you have to round all your bases in order to reach home.
On many days in our rush to meet life’s demands we don’t hear those voices of inspiration very well. It is kind of like being offered a gift but we are too preoccupied to accept it. I try to live with my arms open.
Twyla Tharp in her new and wonderful book, “The Creative Habit,” talks about the relationship between physical acts and creative ones. She says if the brain is stuck move the body. I say, if the picture is stuck, move the camera, move the lights, and move the models.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
So where does the inspiration come from? Last week I was stuck in traffic on Chicago’s infamous Eden’s freeway when I heard somebody on the radio say the phrase: “Fragile Beauty.” Those words struck a chord, which I will explore photographically. Later that day, Nancy Morey from Cramer-Krasselt asked me, “What have you been thinking about?” We talked for a while about the relationship between abstraction and universality. Both these encounters will somehow work their way into my pictures.
For me inspiration can also come from an inspiring model. I will meet somebody at a casting and will find their look, and more importantly, their personality, captivating. I will then develop shooting scripts around what intrigues me about them. The script ideas often come from my day-to-day life. I then set the scene and let the talent act it out. It is during this acting that I seek to catch the spark of life.
To catch this spark I often expand the emotional gestalt of a shoot by having the talent playing the scene from several points of view. If I am after a romantic couple I will also have the couple act as if the are angry, mad, contemplative or bored. By swinging back and forth through different emotions the talent will often reach a truer sense of their feelings. This exercise also builds trust between the models. Most of our emotions are not pure, they have many shades, many sides, and they are complicated. Powerful photography has that sense of the complicated nature of our emotional lives.
Trust is a key feeling in selling. Building trust on the set I believe is key to building trust in a photograph. By giving our talent as real of a world as possible to act in, they more easily enter into their roles. One of the neat things about shooting digitally for example, is that the talent and the clients can see the scenes take shape on a large monitor. Once they see how great it looks, their trust factor and their confidence goes way up which helps to enhance the success of a shoot. Like baseball, you have to round all your bases in order to reach home.
On many days in our rush to meet life’s demands we don’t hear those voices of inspiration very well. It is kind of like being offered a gift but we are too preoccupied to accept it. I try to live with my arms open.
Twyla Tharp in her new and wonderful book, “The Creative Habit,” talks about the relationship between physical acts and creative ones. She says if the brain is stuck move the body. I say, if the picture is stuck, move the camera, move the lights, and move the models.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
Creativity Flows Like A Crazy River
Creativity flows like a crazy river. One moment it is so low that you can clearly count the pebbles laying on the bottom of the river bed; the next instant it is a swirl of rushing water - powerful, churning, full of debris and lust. We who live in the commercial art world, where deadlines and budgets do not permit the luxury of waiting for the next creative deluge, need to find a way to survive in this land of deserts and floods.
Clients approach us, the experts, with ideas that can be quite literal or quite vague, in need of our expert direction. Our task is to find the underlying concept and illustrate it as powerfully, visually, and uniquely as possible. It’s like translating a foreign language. When my clients bring me their ideas, my job is to pick up on and even enhance the rhythm, structure and color of the layout. I must fully understand the concepts and thinking behind the campaign. Like all good translations, it works best when I go beyond just the meaning of the individual words and bring the sprite of the piece to life. This happens when I permit the rushing waters of creativity to carry me. It is a brave thing to allow and even encourage this process to take place. To loosen the attachments that we have to preconceived notions and to respond to what is truly working in the picture that is unfolding before our eyes is often not easy to do.
I can feel the moment when during a shoot I let go of the restraints of ego and budget and start with visual honesty to just react to what is in front of me. Clients feel it too and this synergy is what produces the best visuals. Incorporating some flexibility to be able to add ingredients to the stew, when it tastes a bit flat, is an exciting way to work.
Whether we are in still waters or churning rapids, we who thrive in this commercial world must still bring home the dinner. We do this best when we can reach deep into our creative well and ask, what can we do to make this better?
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
Clients approach us, the experts, with ideas that can be quite literal or quite vague, in need of our expert direction. Our task is to find the underlying concept and illustrate it as powerfully, visually, and uniquely as possible. It’s like translating a foreign language. When my clients bring me their ideas, my job is to pick up on and even enhance the rhythm, structure and color of the layout. I must fully understand the concepts and thinking behind the campaign. Like all good translations, it works best when I go beyond just the meaning of the individual words and bring the sprite of the piece to life. This happens when I permit the rushing waters of creativity to carry me. It is a brave thing to allow and even encourage this process to take place. To loosen the attachments that we have to preconceived notions and to respond to what is truly working in the picture that is unfolding before our eyes is often not easy to do.
I can feel the moment when during a shoot I let go of the restraints of ego and budget and start with visual honesty to just react to what is in front of me. Clients feel it too and this synergy is what produces the best visuals. Incorporating some flexibility to be able to add ingredients to the stew, when it tastes a bit flat, is an exciting way to work.
Whether we are in still waters or churning rapids, we who thrive in this commercial world must still bring home the dinner. We do this best when we can reach deep into our creative well and ask, what can we do to make this better?
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
12/2007
Miracles
When the world and photography were younger every image seemed fresh and new. Now it seems that we are nearly drowning in a sea of images. As a photographer it can be overwhelming. No matter where you point a camera, no matter what situations you dream in your minds eye, no matter what off beat ethnic models you choose, it feels like déjà vu.
Yet, every day the magic happens and fresh ideas are born. And the wonderful thing about today’s diverse market place is that there is room for the novel, the offbeat, the dreamy, the sincere and the real. It is just a matter of marrying the image to the concept, to the product and to the viewer.
Lately I hear art directors complaining, “my clients not only insist on using the cheapest royalty free stock, but they are giving me images that they found themselves and insist on using them.” It is sort of like taking a drug and then figuring out which disease you wish to cure. No wonder that so many ads taste like aspirin.
Why are we scared to create? Part of it is the time pressure, part of it is the high turnover rate and the relative youth of many account executives who do not have the power yet to stand up for their art director’s ideas, and part of it is that in many ways we have become a risk adverse society.
What would happen if the next time you presented comps to your client you used markers instead of photos? Really tight comps mean less room for creative interpretations later. Give a musician a recording of the Beatles and say, play me that and you will get a nice mimic of John, George, Paul and Ringo. Give a good musician a score and you will get closer to the heart. Give a great musician a concept or mood and you might get a miracle. In today’s crowed market place, your clients deserve miracles.
It has been a busy winter; we recently did a campaign for Motorola, several N.Y. hospitals and Better Homes and Gardens. Our commercial assignment work is now also represented by Getty Images and our recent stock output can be found at Corbis, Workbookstock and soon at Uppercut Images.
I have received many thank you notes and comments about these newsletters. I truly appreciate them. We love hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
12/07
Nothing to Lose
Have you ever wondered why so many people have had their breakthrough idea when they are just starting out?
When we are young, full of energy, passion, ambition and the burning need just to be seen, we are often too naive to know what can’t be done. All of our ideas seem to have equal merit and all seem so easily produced. We have yet to develop scar tissue from years of battle with the powers that be. We are not afraid because we have so little to lose.
For those of us who have walked life’s road a bit and built our professional identity on earlier successes, we have a vested interest in keeping our reputation. The crowds yell out to us, sing, “Satisfaction” again. How do we stop each creative answer from being in the same key? Do we just cash in or do we start again from the beginning? Bank accounts, credit cards, kids in school and a reputation to keep intact - how do we stop thinking about the soles of our shoes?
Youth have no professional habits. They approach each dawn like the first day of Genesis. But the artists, designers, and cultural leaders that I admire the most are those who at sixty are as innovative as they were at twenty. I often ask, how do they do it?
They do it by not being afraid. Fear is the emotion that stops us in our tracks. Fear freezes the mind and builds walls around the soul. The bumps and scars of a creative life teach us to be careful but being careful is the death of creativity. So how can we remain fearless?
Controlling our environment is often easier than controlling our behavior. Can we create a work environment that is both stimulating and reassuring? One of the tenets of improvisational comedy is that the characters never say “no” - saying “no” stops the action. Each character in good improv accepts the line and concepts of the previous characters and builds upon them. Why can’t creative meetings work the same way?
Fear is ultimately internal and unique to each of us. When I am feeling fearful or blocked I may go for a walk, reach into my spiritual side and remember how fearless I was at twenty.
It is nice to grow and mature. It is even nicer to grow wise and still be fearless.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
When we are young, full of energy, passion, ambition and the burning need just to be seen, we are often too naive to know what can’t be done. All of our ideas seem to have equal merit and all seem so easily produced. We have yet to develop scar tissue from years of battle with the powers that be. We are not afraid because we have so little to lose.
For those of us who have walked life’s road a bit and built our professional identity on earlier successes, we have a vested interest in keeping our reputation. The crowds yell out to us, sing, “Satisfaction” again. How do we stop each creative answer from being in the same key? Do we just cash in or do we start again from the beginning? Bank accounts, credit cards, kids in school and a reputation to keep intact - how do we stop thinking about the soles of our shoes?
Youth have no professional habits. They approach each dawn like the first day of Genesis. But the artists, designers, and cultural leaders that I admire the most are those who at sixty are as innovative as they were at twenty. I often ask, how do they do it?
They do it by not being afraid. Fear is the emotion that stops us in our tracks. Fear freezes the mind and builds walls around the soul. The bumps and scars of a creative life teach us to be careful but being careful is the death of creativity. So how can we remain fearless?
Controlling our environment is often easier than controlling our behavior. Can we create a work environment that is both stimulating and reassuring? One of the tenets of improvisational comedy is that the characters never say “no” - saying “no” stops the action. Each character in good improv accepts the line and concepts of the previous characters and builds upon them. Why can’t creative meetings work the same way?
Fear is ultimately internal and unique to each of us. When I am feeling fearful or blocked I may go for a walk, reach into my spiritual side and remember how fearless I was at twenty.
It is nice to grow and mature. It is even nicer to grow wise and still be fearless.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
www.zavesmith.com
11/06
Tomorrow's Images
Advertising photography is a floating world carried by the latest trends in cultural, politics and fashion. To survive on this river you need to know when to let the currents of popular culture carry you and when to set sail in a stream of ones own creation.
Around every two years or so I find myself becoming grumpy and bored by the work that I am doing and I realize it is time to change. It would be easy to open the latest Workbook or Vogue and copy the style of the day, but what fun is that? Though I might use these resources to inspire, I ultimately look in two places for inspiration. One place is inside my heart and the other are the new work prints that start to cover my walls.
These days I find myself trying to find the right balance between realism and fiction. I am not interested in creating fantasy worlds where every man is built like a tank, every woman is a perfect “0″ and everybody is smiling. What is interesting about that? I am more intrigued by questions than answers. I am looking for the fiction that helps us understand the multi dimensional reality of being human.
One of the biggest differences between yesterday and tomorrow’s work is intent. Where yesterday I would look for an idea, tomorrow I am looking for a feeling. Yesterday I would want to photograph an activity; tomorrow I want to photograph possibilities. Yesterday I photographed from the outside in; tomorrow I wish to photograph from the inside out.
These new images seem to often take a long time to gestate. While before I would spend a day or two putting together an image now I find myself spending days just finding the right location. This new location often inspires me to rethink the whole concept of the shot. Then I start the whole process again by casting. This method is time consuming, but intriguing, thought provoking and fun. It requires not being married to the original idea but allowing a dialogue to develop between the visual elements and myself.
Not all of tomorrows work is born under such labor. Occasionally images seem to fall into my lap. For each shot that took weeks of thinking and rethinking, there are shots that just happen. A new talent comes to the studio, we talk, we play, all the pieces fit and a visual metaphor is born.
It is hard at times to reconcile these two different methods of creating. Julia Cameron, in her wonderful book, “The Artist Way”, talks about keeping ourselves open to our visions. I feel that my best work happens when I let go of my preconceived notions and allow myself to react to what is happening in the viewfinder. What seems to work best on assignment is making sure that all the needed elements are there and then letting the work, the talent and the ideas flow. This at times it can feel like closing yours eyes and stepping off into the abyss. Creating is an act of faith, but he beats being bored and grumpy.
Around every two years or so I find myself becoming grumpy and bored by the work that I am doing and I realize it is time to change. It would be easy to open the latest Workbook or Vogue and copy the style of the day, but what fun is that? Though I might use these resources to inspire, I ultimately look in two places for inspiration. One place is inside my heart and the other are the new work prints that start to cover my walls.
These days I find myself trying to find the right balance between realism and fiction. I am not interested in creating fantasy worlds where every man is built like a tank, every woman is a perfect “0″ and everybody is smiling. What is interesting about that? I am more intrigued by questions than answers. I am looking for the fiction that helps us understand the multi dimensional reality of being human.
One of the biggest differences between yesterday and tomorrow’s work is intent. Where yesterday I would look for an idea, tomorrow I am looking for a feeling. Yesterday I would want to photograph an activity; tomorrow I want to photograph possibilities. Yesterday I photographed from the outside in; tomorrow I wish to photograph from the inside out.
These new images seem to often take a long time to gestate. While before I would spend a day or two putting together an image now I find myself spending days just finding the right location. This new location often inspires me to rethink the whole concept of the shot. Then I start the whole process again by casting. This method is time consuming, but intriguing, thought provoking and fun. It requires not being married to the original idea but allowing a dialogue to develop between the visual elements and myself.
Not all of tomorrows work is born under such labor. Occasionally images seem to fall into my lap. For each shot that took weeks of thinking and rethinking, there are shots that just happen. A new talent comes to the studio, we talk, we play, all the pieces fit and a visual metaphor is born.
It is hard at times to reconcile these two different methods of creating. Julia Cameron, in her wonderful book, “The Artist Way”, talks about keeping ourselves open to our visions. I feel that my best work happens when I let go of my preconceived notions and allow myself to react to what is happening in the viewfinder. What seems to work best on assignment is making sure that all the needed elements are there and then letting the work, the talent and the ideas flow. This at times it can feel like closing yours eyes and stepping off into the abyss. Creating is an act of faith, but he beats being bored and grumpy.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
11/2006
So, why don’t you sell shoes”? says my mother as I complained about business during a dip on this roller coaster ride we call a career. Why do I always want to get back on this ride? It comes down to one glorious, indefinable phenomenon - passion.
I am still in awe of the ability of a two dimensional object to contain, fixed within its borders, pieces of the elusive mystery we call life.
Now, I have been at this for a while. At first it was all about being an “Artist”. Then the babies came. Suddenly it’s more about bringing in the money. I did what I thought the market wanted or what my clients could tell me they wanted. I could make a colostomy bag look beautiful or a paint brush look sexy. Those days my photography was all about being “perfect” and well lit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there was no “me” in those images.
Passion. For a long time I didn’t believe there was a place for it in a commercial photography studio. How wrong I was. I got by until I gave myself permission to let my personal passions enter my professional work. Once this occurred, my career truly blossomed.
A few years ago, with the help of a few guides and a stubborn studio manager, I reclaimed my personal vision. I remembered why I got into photography in the first place. I re-learned how to create photographs that captured the fleeting spirit of living.
What do I mean by the fleeting spirit? For me living is full of energy, love, fun, pathos, silence, longing, exhaustion, amazement and awe. It amazes me how a subtle change of gesture totally changes what a photograph communicates. Through my photography I seek to convey how these simple moments can communicate the ageless wonder and wisdom inside of us. The beauty of the everyday connects us to the infinite. This is what gets me jazzed each day on the way to a shoot.
Often on a shoot I try so hard to hear what my client is saying that I lose sight of why I was hired in the first place. Clients call me to use my visual sense to express their concept, not to dictate every detail. I am hired for what my aesthetic can bring to project. My most successful shoots are those where I listen to myself as much as I listen to the client. A true collaboration.
I like to dazzle my viewer by showing them something they have seen a hundred times, but never like this before. I love to bring a laugh or a smile of recognition to their face.
Mother long ago stopped making career suggestions to me. Instead she listens in wonder at the stories from my photo shoots. She understands that for me photography is not just a living but also a way of life…
Summer has been a busy one for the studio. We have recently completed projects for Nickelodeon, Blue Cross of Illinois, Parade, Family Fun and Shire Pharmaceutica.
I am still in awe of the ability of a two dimensional object to contain, fixed within its borders, pieces of the elusive mystery we call life.
Now, I have been at this for a while. At first it was all about being an “Artist”. Then the babies came. Suddenly it’s more about bringing in the money. I did what I thought the market wanted or what my clients could tell me they wanted. I could make a colostomy bag look beautiful or a paint brush look sexy. Those days my photography was all about being “perfect” and well lit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there was no “me” in those images.
Passion. For a long time I didn’t believe there was a place for it in a commercial photography studio. How wrong I was. I got by until I gave myself permission to let my personal passions enter my professional work. Once this occurred, my career truly blossomed.
A few years ago, with the help of a few guides and a stubborn studio manager, I reclaimed my personal vision. I remembered why I got into photography in the first place. I re-learned how to create photographs that captured the fleeting spirit of living.
What do I mean by the fleeting spirit? For me living is full of energy, love, fun, pathos, silence, longing, exhaustion, amazement and awe. It amazes me how a subtle change of gesture totally changes what a photograph communicates. Through my photography I seek to convey how these simple moments can communicate the ageless wonder and wisdom inside of us. The beauty of the everyday connects us to the infinite. This is what gets me jazzed each day on the way to a shoot.
Often on a shoot I try so hard to hear what my client is saying that I lose sight of why I was hired in the first place. Clients call me to use my visual sense to express their concept, not to dictate every detail. I am hired for what my aesthetic can bring to project. My most successful shoots are those where I listen to myself as much as I listen to the client. A true collaboration.
I like to dazzle my viewer by showing them something they have seen a hundred times, but never like this before. I love to bring a laugh or a smile of recognition to their face.
Mother long ago stopped making career suggestions to me. Instead she listens in wonder at the stories from my photo shoots. She understands that for me photography is not just a living but also a way of life…
Summer has been a busy one for the studio. We have recently completed projects for Nickelodeon, Blue Cross of Illinois, Parade, Family Fun and Shire Pharmaceutica.
Sincerely,
Zave Smith
9/2005
www.zavesmith.com
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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