So, onto the breakthrough, the big idea, what have you: I realized I’ve been showing too much with the construction pictures. I had this impulse to get it all in, to show the whole, giant job site, as if that was the way to convey the scale of it. Unfortunately, none of those pictures really worked. There was something missing, and the compositions were never good enough. Then, last week, I was looking at Peter Turnley’s book on paris, French Kiss, and realized that the compositions shouldn’t be perfect, and that you can’t show everything. You have to cut some of it out.
So, today, on the way home, I walked to the bus (moderately foolish, what with my leg still recovering, but I managed). I went past the construction that I like the best, and a subject that had been confounding me for weeks, before my accident. Suddenly, I was able to see it, and made some good pictures.
I’ve long believed that in film, it’s better to suggest than to show; the viewer’s imagination is better at pushing its own buttons, the ones for fear and awe and the sublime. I haven’t, up till now, figured out that that idea applies equally to my own work. I feel dumb for not realizing it sooner, but also relieved: there is still time to make some pictures.
Also: I’ve been shooting with the new lens and I have to say I really like it. Good depth of field in daylight, and just beautifully sharp. I didn’t know what I was missing.
