Authorship

I sat down with Harvey yesterday for a little one-on-one time. I've been wanting to speak with him about my photography, life, and the way I've been feeling lately in general. Harvey lives in this amazing building in Brooklyn. It's an old looking warehouse building from the outside, but the inside is full of artist lofts.

So we sat down in front of industrial sized windows as the sun was beginning to set. The smoke of his cigarette was slowly wafting around his face with a sort of rhythm.

He said, "Kev, how ya doing?" as drank our cokes and studied each other for a second.

I explained that I want to move my work to that next level. I said that I felt ready to do that now. I said I want to learn how to think differently, more maturely.

He said that there was nothing wrong with my eye. That was good. Authorship, he said. You have to take control of your photos and put yourself into them. Care about them.

Seems like an easy response. But I started thinking more about those words later. In a previous post I mentioned that I'm only happy with a few of my photos and I hate that about my work. I thought for a moment what would happen if all my work was suddenly lost. No recovery. Sure I would be pissed, but devastated? No, not in the least. What does that mean? I think it means that I don't care as much as I should about the things that I photograph.

It's all about your personal work. It always has been. But growing up as a newspaper photographer, I believe, has left me only expecting assignments. If I'm not getting the good assignments it's because of the editor, not me. Right? I hear it all the time from my editors. Find yourself something you want to work on and we'll give you some time on it. What do I do? Wait for my assignments. I just never realized how important it really was.