Rebecca Mead, in a recent NEW YORKER article, writes about Walter Murch, film editor and sound designer (Apocalypse Now and English Patient) who is working now on a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider, which, among other things, has been used to prove the existence of the Higgs field and the Higgs boson particle. 

When asked whether his work on the film has led to a greater reverence for the universe, Murch replied:

"I think of a Muriel Rukeyser quote, where she says the universe is made of stories, not of atoms.  The tension is between finding ever more detail about atomic structure, and the story.  It could be the equivalent of somebody looking at an old film, and realizing that the film came from a projector, and discovering that there is an image in the projector, and that it's made of molecules of grains of film, thinking, If I finally get to the heart of that, will it tell me where my story comes from?  While we know these are two separate universes."

"It may be that our story, whatever that is – existence — depends on the Higgs boson and atoms, but it depends on it the way the film depends on the molecular structure of the celluloid. That just happens to be the medium through which it is manifest, but the story predates the film and, in fact, actually created the film itself."

Found these trenchant words of advice on Swiss Miss:

“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
                                                                                                                                - Kurt Vonnegut

Just read an excellent interview in the NY TIMES with longtime street photographer Alex Webb — here are a few choice observations:

My photography at its purest is about response, about visual exploration, about discovery. On one level, if I knew what it was I wanted in advance, I'm not sure I would choose photography as a medium. Part of what excites me about photography is its very uncertainty, the fact that it is not just the photographer, but the vagaries of the world that result in the photograph. If I had a greater inkling of just what I wanted in advance, why not choose a medium where there is much greater imaginative control, like painting?

I feel the space, the light, the color, the form and the scene simultaneously. I'm not thinking, I'm sensing the street. For me, color isn't just about color, light isn't just about light, space isn't just about space, form isn't just about form. I'm intrigued with the emotional and sensory tenor of these elements.

 It's not just up to me whether a photograph will be successful. The world is my collaborator as well. I believe it was Charles Harbutt, in his afterword to "Travelog," who wonders when he's looking for a photograph if perhaps that same photograph is also looking for him.

Driving back to the studio some months back, shortly after children's book author Maurice Sendak died, I heard a past interview he did with Terri Gross on her radio program "Fresh Air."  It was a very touching exchange – one of those radio moments when you realize you could have missed your exit – and so when I found an illustrated version of it (thanks, Swiss Miss) I thought I'd share the link and transcribe some of the dialogue:

I'm beginning to see nature …

It's something I'm finding out as I'm aging — that I am in love with the world, and I look right now as we speak together out my window, in my studio… and I see my trees, my beautiful, beautiful maples are hundreds of years old  — they're beautiful, and you say, " I can see how beautiful they are — I can take time to see how beautiful they are."

It is a blessing to get old.  It is a blessing to find the time to do the things:  to read the books, to listen to the music…

Live your life,
Live your life,
Live your life.

I've been personally working in the gallery for over a year now and one unexpected pleasure is chatting with gallery visitors about their lives and learning of all the good things going on that never make the news. 

Though these personal anecdotes may not be "newsworthy" by most standards, I've found they provide a welcome antidote to the barrage of negative stories we learn about every day — the ones that start to make us believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Among some of the stories people have shared: sponsoring a young persons college education, completing work on the 60th house in the area built by Habitat For Humanity and organizing an event to raise money for those who have met some setbacks.  Not to mention the steady stream of rescue dogs that find love from a caring household.

In that vein, here is a link to a mashup of security camera videos that have captured little vignettes of people demonstrating their better selves worldwide – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Happy New Year.

My own experience lends credence to this quote I recently came across:

    Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."

                                                Pablo Picasso

I came across this interesting perspective on creativity by filmaker Jim Jarmusch:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”

I recently came across an interview with Tim Ferris, author of The 4-hour Work Week — here's a telling excerpt:

You're known for your grassroots marketing style. Do artists today have a responsibility to market themselves?

It's 100% their responsibility. If you want to be a tremendous artist, and then expect people to beat a path to your door, you can try that. The fact of the matter is, it's not going to happen unless you meet someone who makes that happen.

So you can make it accidental or you can grease the wheels of the universe and try to encourage those things to happen. In that case, guess what? You're marketing. When people think marketing, they think of a cheesy sales guy. Marketing is knowing exactly who your customers are, and trying to get your product, your art to them. If you are creating art for yourself, well great, go live in a cave and do it. But if you're doing it commercially and you have bills to pay, it's not selling out to get your work to the people who most appreciate it.

from an interview on 99u

A column in the NY TIMES caught my eye last week.  Silas House, a writer, describes an encounter with another writer at a workshop and I thought his conclusion could be applied to photography, or any creative endeavor:
 

I was a young, naïve, foolish writer who was searching for my way. I swallowed hard and asked [ James Still, a novelist and poet] if he had any advice on how to be a better writer. He didn’t answer for a long minute, gazing off at the hills as if ignoring me.

But then he spoke, and I realized that he had taken that moment for quiet thought. “Discover something new every day."

This way of being must be something that we have to turn off instead of actively turn on. It must be the way we live our lives.