cole thompson photography

newsletter

Issue 113 - April 18, 2020

Beauty in Death No. 6

Will 2020 become known as "the lost year?"

And when we look back, will we see any difference in the images created during this year?



Quote:

When money enters in, - then, for a price, I become a liar, - and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but (with it) so do I support not only my family, but my own work..

Edward Weston



Thank you for reading my newsletter!

Cole

I was born into a black and white world

Well, we had some technical difficulties with Zoom last month and not everyone could see or hear my presentation.

I have re-recorded it and it's now available on the Nature Photographers Network, but this time with perfect sound and video.

To view it, sign up for the Nature Photographers Network.

Once logged in, you can watch the video here:

Trees from a Train



I've just released two new audio recordings for 'The Story Behind the Image" series:

Trees from a Train

The Dunes of Nude

I now have 21 recorded stories on how some of my favorite images were created. For example:

Would you like to hear the story of The Angel Gabriel again?

Want to hear how the Ghosts of Auschwitz-Birkenau series came about?

Have you ever heard the funny argument that came about because of this image?

How did an iPhone save this shot from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg Russia?

Why did this image have me waiting for 12 hours?

How did my car get destroyed in Iceland?

Picasso said "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

I believe we all start life with our Vision fully intact and guiding us. We start off young, innocent and we've not yet learned to conform or to please others. 

For example: as a child when we painted, we painted how we liked things. Perhaps we had red skies, purple horses, blue grass...it didn't matter how the world actually was, we painted it the way we saw it, the way we imagined it or just the way we liked it. 

But then someone frowned at our painting and said "skies are not supposed to be red" and then to make things worse, they gave Sally a big smile and a pat on the head because she had painted her skies blue.

We got the message: conform and be accepted, conform to earn praise, conform and you will be happy!

We were quick learners and so we began to conform, and the more we conformed, the more our Vision receded. The more we sought to please others, the less we sought to please ourselves...until one day our Vision disappeared.

And not only did we lose our Vision, we forgot that we had ever once had one.

When I started photographing at age 14, I had a Vision. But as I started to conform, to please others, to care what other's thought (I call these Vision blockers) my Vision receded.

Eventually my Vision lenses got so dark that my Vision was completely blocked.



Perfect Vision.

Pleasing others.

Caring what other people think.

Conforming.

Following the rules.

Trying to win and earn likes.

As I sought to "find" my Vision some 35 years later, I realized that I had to start focusing on what I wanted and not what others expected of me. I believed that if I could remove my Vision blockers, I could find my Vision. 

What I needed to do was Just. Let. Go.

Let go of caring what others thought. 

Let go of conforming. 

Let go of following the rules. 

Let go of worrying if others would like my work. 

Let go of trying to win competitions. 

Let go of getting likes. 

Let go of photographing "the right way."

Let go of trying to please others. 

Let go of other's expectations. 

Let go of my fear of criticism. 

Let go of everything.

Vision is what’s left when you remove all of your fears and insecurities, when you stop complying and conforming, when you ignore what others are doing and you pursue what you love. 

Once you don't care what anyone else thinks about your work, you're free to do whatever you want; to ignore the expert's advice, to flaunt convention, to photograph the "wrong way" and to pursue whatever you love.

Not caring is a wonderfully liberating feeling, and for me it was the moment my work started to change for the better

To find your Vision and to change your work for the better: Just. Let. Go.

Last newsletter I added a "Dunes of Nude" YouTube video link.

But I used the wrong link! Here's the right one:

Isolated No. 22

Here's where I'll be speaking...I think...I hope!



If you know of a group that would like to have me speak, please have them email me at: [email protected]



For this month's print drawing, you can choose any image from my website. To enter: send an email to [email protected] and put "Pick My Own Print" in the subject line.

Thanks for entering!