Exclusivity of Ideas

Further on whether or not ideas are 'mine'. I listened to Radiolab in December, in which Kevin Kelly described how multiple patents for the telephone were claimed in a short span of time. Same for light bulbs.

The gist of the Radiolab discussion is that, with technology, at least, once the conditions become right for the invention of something, many people will try to invent it at the same time. For example, to invent the light bulb, a bunch of things had to have been discovered already: electricity, partial vacuum, filaments.

So I'm thinking that this is probably true culturally, as well. Think zeitgeist. And photographically, think Cuba, porn stars, or the Bonneville Salt Flats.

For a long while I thought that all these similar photo projects showing up around the same time was just a bunch of people glomming on to one guy's good idea, but the Radiolab discussion made me think otherwise. Sometimes, the photographs show up pretty close together in time, and the projects are fairly long-term, which suggests that everybody got started around the same time. And of course, the coincidental manifestations of similar ideas often look very different.

These three images came out within a couple months of each other. I hadn't seen either of the others, and I'm sure they hadn't seen mine.

Rob Prideaux

Brad Wenner

So these ideas appear in the window...this window which I think of as mine, but it's a portal, and what's beyond the windowframe isn't mine any more than you own the atmosphere outside your house. That atmosphere, I think, is common, shared amongst us all.

And that's where ideas live. So who owns ideas? No one.

Ideas own themselves. When I am working at my best, I am working in service to the idea. Are the props good enough for this idea? Does the lighting support the idea? Is this the right composition for this idea? Am I working at the right pace, am I aligned with the idea, am I listening well?

Which is where any kind of "ownership" comes in. I own my response to the idea, and that's pretty much it, but it's not small.

Further Along with Mobile Devices

Working on a new portfolio, and today's the first time I've put all the pictures together and had a close look at them. The things I notice:

  • I'm not sure I want to stay with mobile devices. I think I'll expand to the whole high tech category
  • I need to shoot more. I noticed I keep trying to make more pictures via retouching, which has never really worked for me.
  • Turns out completely revolutionizing the way mobile devices are shot is harder than you'd think.

Most of these are most of the way there, but none of them are all the way there. "There" being "finished".

Anyways. What do you think?

Galaxy Tab paper model.

IMG_0215a.jpg

This looks a lot better with a screen, but it still sits there funny. And I don't mean ha ha.

IMG_0575a.jpg

I think this looks better with an image on the screen, but I don't think that's the right image.

I think I can light these in a way that's more exciting. Kinda fun though.

I like this one quite a lot...

but this is my favorite.

On Editing

"Finally on editing, when looking at portfolios you can easily tell within a couple images if this is someone you want to work with. After that it’s all about finding reasons why you don’t want to work with them. Editing out the crap is essential because everyone takes bad pictures. Not letting anyone see them is your job and mine." Words to live by.

via A Photo Editor

Shelf Life of Ideas

I like to think of my ideas as mine, and that's a convenient shorthand, but really, the routine way I think about ideas is incorrect. I think of an idea as something I come up with in my head, or something that appears in the intersection between my mind, my heart and my body. But that's not quite right.

Creativity is more like a window that appears, sort of inside me and outside me at the same time (like the windows in your house). And the...thing...that somehow becomes a photo eventually, comes through that window. The speed at which it travels through that window, through me, through my camera, and out into the world affects the final characteristics of the manifestation.

It's possible to try to manifest an idea too early, before it's had time to develop, but the opposite case is far more common.

There are ideas that live too long in my head, taking up residence, and becoming more detailed and rich, until they become too precious, and I won't shoot them, because I won't risk losing that glittering dream in my mind.

There are also ideas that roll around too long, picking up lint and dust bunnies from the space and from other ideas, and by the time they come out, they don't make any sense.

And then there are ideas that fester in there, until I become sick of them, but they won't go away and I have to make them anyway, but they come out overwrought.

Anything that hangs around too long gets ruined somehow. But that's too passive a way to say it, because it's more like any idea that I hold in that place too long after it's ready to come out starts to get ruined (and I just realized that has already happened with this very thought.

I mentioned that it's possible to try to bring out an idea too soon, but not likely. It's not likely because the even the act of trying to bring out the idea modifies the idea, usually either fleshing it out, making it more coherent and fuller, or poking it full of holes and showing how it's not such a great idea after all.

I like to think that the idea is mine, but at the basic level, what's mine is whether or not I open the window, and what's mine is my posture toward the ideas that appear there. So, ideas are not really 'mine' in a possession sense, and in the next post, not really 'mine' in an exclusive sense, either.