When I’m on vacation, I get to pretend that I am a photographer for a living, which is a really fun thing to do. I become single-minded about my work in a way that I never am at home. I make a point of making the most of my time, going out to shoot every day if I can. On the days I’m not shooting, I am doing research, hiking out to new locations, making notes, or just looking at or reading something inspiring. In the 15 days we were in Barcelona this August, I was out shooting for 11 of those days, and thinking about photography the rest of the time.
On days that I was shooting, I would be out for 4-6 hours a day, carrying a heavy kit with a 4×5 camera, a sturdy tripod, two lenses, film holders, notebooks, and everything else I needed. There were days that I would come back so sore, so tired, that I couldn’t imagine going back out there the next day. And yet I did. Photography was my job for those two short weeks, and I put everything I had into it. By the time I got back to New York, I was completely exhausted, and it took nearly a week to recover!
There’s something about the physical aspect of the work that enhances the experience for me, I think. I have the attention span of a gnat thanks to growing up as part of the Nintendo generation. All of the strenuous activity and attention to detail required by working with a large format camera helps me achieve a focus and clarity that I find hard to get anywhere else. I really do hope that this is my job someday, no matter how long it takes.
PRI’s To the Best of Our Knowledge is about work this week, and I recommend a listen. (If you don’t have Real Player, NPR also publishes it at a podcast.) The segment with Matthew Crawford, about the value of working with your hands, really resonated with me. He talks about how we seem to have lost a certain kind of connection with with the physical world, which is reflected in the kind of work we do. I certainly feel this in my day-to-day life, which is why the time I get to spend outside with a big camera is so important. I guess the question for me is, how do I make it so that it’s 50 weeks out of the year instead of the other way around?
Interestingly, the latest issue of Purpose magazine is also about work. Enjoy.
I so appreciate what you're saying here, Dalton. I'm so tired of the sitting-at-a-computer version of exhaustion. When I'm out photographing, it's so much more physical, so much more visceral. I hope photography is your job someday, and mine, too.
I feel exactly the same way, word for word.
Godspeed!
Dalton,
your post triggered in my mind my own image in a situation similar to what you describe. And, thinking to Barcelona, to the beautiful books by Carlos Ruis Zafon, really suggested if you, as I'm sure, enjoyed the city.
Out in the world, far from ugly computer screen, no connection to anything else except to photography itself. When not photographing…. thinking about photography. I start to believe that we are too much blog-tumblr-twittered and that all these thing (positive to certain expect, especially for marketing reasons) make us go NOT in the very best direction. If you're like me you'll check you statistics on web visitors, read interesting posts all over the world, and at the very and, gain some distraction by ALL this information. I have 250 blog-related subscription in my Google reader, most of them unread…. Do we really need all this stuff? Or we should self limit to an auto-discipline of 1 day/week of Internet-photography ?
Massimo
Massimo,
I did read some of Zafon's new book while I was in Barcelona! I haven't finished it yet, but it was quite fun reading it while I was there.
Every once in a while I feel overwhelmed by Facebook/Flickr/Twitter/Blogs and try to ease up a little, but nothing works better than a vacation with limited Internet access. We will find a way to keep ourselves interested one way or another, some are just more constructive than others!