Attitudes Behind the Lens

I recently read an article online (I know, oh wow!) that had me thinking about my attitude towards photography, editing, and life in general behind the lens. It wasn’t meant to be an article on attitudes, but it transformed into that kind of mentality by the time I had finished reading and analyzing it for myself. Why do we write these articles when everyone writes the same articles? Which got me thinking because I’ve often wondered the same thing. Do I really have to explain aperture and exposure again?

But it struck me half way into a whiskey neat that this way of thinking is destructive to your creative process. If I were to take a photograph of the Sears Tower and share with everyone wouldn’t that be the same as writing an article that everyone has written? Yes, I agree that most articles are just recycled topics that are transformed with new words, but sometimes these articles evolve. As a photographer who often shoots the same buildings, landscapes, and people as other photographers the idea becomes topic of composition. How can I frame it differently than those before me so that others aspire to create the same composition as I? And if that becomes exceedingly difficult to do than how can I take the same composition and make it better?

I had a conversation with a non-photographer about writing blogs, journals, or what-have-yous and their mentality was almost the same as this article that I had read. So many duplicate articles float around on the internet with each article more trimmed than the next one as if the human brain loses interest after a few sentences. The idea behind putting words into photography is to help those suffering from photo block or to give way to a new idea or series. It’s to help someone who is looking for an answer.

With each post I write I try to tell a story, give instruction, or offer a thought that I may be struggling with or want opinions on myself. I want you to have read my article and leave with a new train of thought, or at the very least question your attitude towards the topic of discussion. After all; an open mind is a creative mind.

"Our city, Second City"

There is a lot of color in this image, but when I went black and white it just felt right. I rarely go monochrome as I have mentioned many times, but I was messing around with some VSCO filmpacks and this one hit the spot. I was also listening to Slayer's "Raining Blood" while editing so maybe that influenced this edit?