As a photographer do you prefer to create the image, or be surprised?

Thinking about CALLA CAM, as well as shooting film vs digital — and the motive we have as photographer-artists.

One of the fun things with CALLA CAM (iPhone Camera app) and shooting film is this:

You’re not certain what the final photo will look like (before shooting).

Thus the joy and fun is the randomness, uncertainty, and surprise with what the final photo will look like.

For example the CALLA CAM app is fun — you shoot with your camera and it creates all these simulated “light leaks”, as well as random grain, and color shifts. Personally I really like it, and have been having so much fun with it!

#RICOHMAFIA

When shooting with a standard “standalone” digital camera like the RICOH GR II, you intend to post process the photo afterwards, in order to create a certain aesthetic vision and look in your photo.

And this is where I see a certain philosophical divide in photography:

How do we desire randomness, chance, and unpredictability to affect our artwork-creation process and photography?

If your passion and interest is street photography, we channel BOTH randomness AND skill. We walk around to look for interesting people and scenes, and we use our skill (composition, timing, proximity to subject, and technical skills) to capture the “decisive moment”.

My thought is this:

Perhaps in our artwork, we should embrace MORE randomness, chance, and chaos in part of our art creation process.

Chaotic ideas

For example,

1. Go to more random art shows, exhibitions, and meet other random artists. Often the most interesting ideas come from random people, random places, or random occurrences.
2. Browse more book stores, browse more technology stores, and follow anything which interests your curiosity. Go to the mall, walk around — don’t just search for random things online (in person is often more fun, efficient, and interesting).
3. From a tech perspective, adding more stochastic resonance, randomness, chaos, and “jittering” to our algorithms, and art tools.
4. Experiment shooting film, or shooting with CALLA CAM or HUJI CAM on iPhone/Android.

SHOOT ON!

ERIC