All Icing, But No Cake….

No, you are not a photographer. You just own a camera….

Imagine if a new surfboard was invented that allowed every beginner surfer to think that they were a pro. Imagine if the board allowed them to paddle out effortlessly to any lineup without needing to understand the break. Imagine the board would allow them to dole out flashy, isolated manuevers, but they’d have no concept of how to connect turns, parlay energy or control their speed. Strictly icing and no cake.

Now substitute that imaginary surfboard with a cheap digital camera. Swap out said clueless surfer with a random consumer in the camera aisle at Best Buy…. Welcome to the world of photography in the age of cheap digital cameras.

Photography used to be a very unique medium. A mixture of skill, science and art. Just a few years ago, if you had a decent eye for composition but no concept of the rudiments of photography, at best you might be able to execute a blurry “artistic black and white” photo of your neighbor to hang on your bathroom wall. Photography used to have a distinct barrier of entry that entailed knowing the basic relationships between aperture, shutter-speed, ISO, and the fundamentals of exposure and color theory. The digital revolution has changed much of that. It’s democratized photography. Now anyone can be a photographer…… or at least they believe they can.

Almost anybody with two eyes and a camera can get lucky and snag a good photo every once in a while – but it used to cost a lot of money to even try. Armed with an erstwhile film camera, it was an expensive endeavor to shoot out-of-focus, poorly cropped or just plain boring images. It forced you to examine the world in a very particular way and provided an incentive to really think about what you were trying to say with every frame. Each click of the shutter was essentially a dollar spent. Shitty pictures had consequences.

Today, modern electronics have dramatically changed the learning curve and the cost of photography. The need for a unique vision and perspective are often overshadowed by ease of use and the ability to take a virtually unlimited amount of photos. It’s all-too-common for people today to shoot 100 random or redundant party pictures and then post all 100 of them online. No editing, no thought, no perspective. That’s not vision, that’s just information.

Dick Avedon's 60's Masterpiece - Sad Marilyn

Richard Avedon’s Sad Marilyn is one of my favorite portraits of all time. It is a perfect illustration of the importance and impact of thoughtful editing. It depicts Marylin Monroe in an intimate and candid moment that is rarely seen. It’s iconic.  Avedon certainly had several other frames of  Marilyn to choose from. Frames where she was laughing. Frames where she was looking at the lens. Frames that reinforced what the existing image of Maryln Monroe was. Obvious choices. He chose instead to show only this particular frame. That bold and decisive choice is what made this portrait so outstanding. That’s editing. That’s vision. That’s creative balls.

Taking pictures has been reduced to the simple act of pushing a button. Nevertheless, the ability to digitally capture an image is not the same thing as having the insight and imagination to shoot a compelling photograph.

A perfect analogy of the paradox between creativity and technology can be illustrated by comparing different genres of music. For example, it takes a very long time to learn to play a guitar well. It’s complicated. There is a barrier of entry to being a rock star. It’s easy to make fun of 80′s hair bands and focus on the spandex and the makeup. But complicated arpeggios and intricate guitar licks were also a large part of that culture. These bands were usually comprised of relatively well-trained musicians – well trained musicians making music that would eventually be the subject of widespread ridicule.

Contrast that with hip hop. At face value, it would seem that it would be easier to create hip hop music – it doesn’t involve years of lessons or extensive amounts of gear. It’s just words and a beat, right?  Every would-be thug or white teenager in his parent’s basement can be a outstanding rapper, right? Absolutely not. How many truly extraordinary rappers are there? Very few indeed. There is a reason why Biggie Smalls is revered. It might be physically easier to produce a hip hop song than it is to play the guitar. It’s also physically easier to shoot a modern digital camera than it is use a Leica M6 rangefinder. But to be culturally significant and to make great work is a different feat altogether. In the end, a guitar, a turntable and a camera are simply tools of expression for a medium. There’s an artistic threshold that advances in technology alone won’t get you past. Simply put, not everyone is gifted.

Technology might be able to lower the barrier of entry to a particular field. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is a shortcut to excellence. There will always be one unavoidable fact – Actual talent, vision and creativity are elusive and irreplaceable.

Here are some shots of titans of their medium trying their hand at mine. I’m still searching for that imaginary surfboard….

Jordy Smith - Number 2 In The World Trying To Focus at Pipeline

Tom Carroll With An Aussie Eye At Wiamea

The Lovely Coco Ho at Rocky Point

World Tour Competitor Pat Gudauskas Sitting One Out At Log Cabbins, North Shore

Taylor Knox Burning Through Steph Gilmore's Super-8 Stock - Rip Curl House

Tags: 80's hair bands, Coco Ho, Hawaii, hip hop, Jordy Smith, Marilyn Monroe, North Shore, Pat Gudauskas, photography, Richard Avedon, Rocky Point, Steph Gilmore, Taylor Knox, Tom Carroll