Being in a flow state, there is no anxiety about your status or fear of failure. Everything you require is presented to you effortlessly. One must surrender to the provisions offered – even those which are unknown, hidden, or unconscious.
Everything you do, and are, and feel, is a creative act or at least part of a creative act. Art is like god, in that it can’t be defined in any one state of being but it can be experienced from one moment to the next.
We make art because we can. It means something different to everyone, just as you mean something different to everyone, but there are patterns often recognized and appreciated, as well as things that make you unique, and things that are not even true about you, assumptions and prejudice.
Basically How I Started
I was drawn to photography around age 10 or so I think. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana. All film because it was the 80’s.
I shot stories, things that meant something to me.
I got serious about it when I was i think maybe 26 or 28 living in Florida when I returned to film and stuck with only film for a few years, using a darkroom in my girlfriends house. After we broke up I started shooting models, friends etc. I had plenty of models to practice on, but of course a limited amount of film. I was shooting Agfa film back then. It was cheap and pretty on skin tones. I shot mostly outdoor portraits.
I started using strobes at some point – and then soon got a digital camera that could trigger a strobe and I got very busy with that and models. For fun. To make art.
I was living in Florida at the time.
I lived on the streets and in hostels and on friend’s couches before all this, all over the country. There are a lot of crazy times from then. Some I’m not sure if it was a dream.
But that was all before I started really shooting.
I used digital and film next to each other mostly all the time I think. The film camera was always superior and more artistic and serious.
I lived all over the New England area from Philly to Boston, taking photos of friends for about 6 years.
I was disorganized.
Now, I’m trying to get to know myself better.