Admittedly, Michael Wolff is not a photographer, but this six minute Intel Visual Life documentary is still worth watching for any and all creative types — especially photographers. My favorite part is his elaboration on the muscles of “seeing” and creativity: curiosity (or questioning), appreciation (or noticing) and, lastly, imagination. He explains each so beautifully; and as a bonus, if you’re interested in branding and design, there’s few people better suited to tell you about it than Mr. Wolff.

My mother.

Gradually, technology changed, and we were able to make this magic ourselves, rolls of 24 and 36 exposures at a time, with plastic film and printed on paper. We accumulated more and more images, in boxes and books, but they were  still physical negatives and prints, processed by someone with skill and talent, and they were tangible. It seems the farther technology advances, we gain the ability to make more and more images, but their nature changes, now we have countless thousands of images stuffed into terabytes of memory, more images than can ever be printed let alone viewed properly and enjoyed, and now these images are like smoke, vapor that can vanish in a moment. I regularly back up all my images, I have lost me fair share and don’t care to go through that stress again, still the new photography has moved to iPhones, iPads, and cameras so small they would make James Bond green with envy, phones for goodness sake, phones!

We regularly walk around with as many images and videos of each other in our cell phones that our parents and grand parents collected in years, and if you lose your phone, well, you have lost more than your contact list. So many photos make us complacent, we take these images for granted, they have lost their magic, no longer do we stare with awe and wonder into someone’s eyes through a modern photograph and feel that sense of preciousness, I can e mail that one to you. Take a second and a third glance at the images that you have, and consider why you make the ones you do, what do they really mean? What life will that image have, a moment of glory on Facebook? I am slowing down these days and really inspecting the images that I am creating and being much more deliberate in their creation, it’s difficult, coming from that high speed, gigabyte mindset of the modern professional photographer. It’s pretty liberating. Going through these old photos of my family is such a treat, like a time machine, because these few images are all there are! Children today have every moment of their lives documented in pictures and video, from birth, to birthday parties, softball games, dances, school events, whatever. Go to any modern event and stop for a second to count the number of people snapping away images on their cell phones, look at the parents at little league games, these kids will have much, much better re created memories of their lives at a younger and younger age because of this. I can’t remember much before I was 7 or 8. It’s just phenomenal. I am interested to see what the future holds for photography, but I find it moving a bit fast for me these days.

My uncle Evan, my father's brother.

Lewis, my mother's brother. Country musician and radio personality.

My grandparents, my dad is the little guy rubbing his eyes.

My mother's brother Bernard in the hat.

My parents at the river, my oldest brother, Phil is the infant.

]]> http://jeffeastphotography.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=2416 0 http://jeffeastphotography.com/blog/?p=2400 http://jeffeastphotography.com/blog/?p=2400#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:26:13 +0000 jceast http://jeffeastphotography.com/blog/?p=2400 I have been re evaluating a bunch of old work lately, and thinking about the way that we each view our world. As an artist for most of my life, I have experienced shifts of all kinds in my perception. Usually these are small shifts, imperceptible to my day to day efforts, and only come into focus in increments, tiny fractions of change that are guided by those day to day experiences and interactions. However sometimes, very infrequently, the world snaps into focus with an almost unnerving suddenness. These moments usually take some time to settle in, and to become comfortable with. It’s not that anything has really changed, but either someone has fundamentally influenced the way that I think about something, or other times I just “get it” like when you stare at a Jackson Pollock painting, at first, it’s just a mess, then something changes, and an incredible symphony is revealed to you in  a flash. Lately, I have been experiencing these “flashes” and I like it. It seems that my creativity spins in cycles, natural rhythms that I can’t and don’t wish to control. Right now, I just want to lay down in the tall grass and enjoy the newness of everything, not sure of how long this will last. I expect that new work will come from this and new direction for myself and my work.

“Consider this your permission to indulge that inner anarchist. Stop following the path you ought to take; follow instead the one you long to take.”
― David duChemin, VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography

I must say how thankful we are to Ben & Kelley & both your families, especially Mike & Jan Hueber, you have welcomed us into your family from the beginning and we truly value your friendship.  You all have made this such a wonderful  experience for us, we hope that we have provided something for your families to treasure from this beautiful moment in your families’ history!

Hueber-Smith-3.11 Hueber---Smith-3.16 Hueber---Smith-3.18 Hueber-Smith-3.3 Hueber-Smith-3.5 Hueber-Smith-3.6 Hueber-Smith-3.7 Hueber-Smith-3.8 Hueber-Smith-3.9 Hueber-Smith-3.10 Hueber-Smith-3.12 Hueber-Smith-3.14 Hueber-Smith-3.13 Hueber-Smith-3.15 Hueber-Smith-3.17 Hueber---Smith-3.4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAPhrYikiSI