I’ve just completed work on some new images from the Puna de Atacama. I was a bit surprised to find that the final work has a more nocturnal feel to it. It isn’t what I had imagined (I gave up planning anything long ago).
I’ve been coming to the Puna de Atacama now for just a little under a decade. Not every year but maybe around six or seven times now. It has been a continuing relationship of reveal, wonder, and strengthening of approach.
Our time with a landscape is a relationship. Perhaps this is something that you have not considered, but that is what our time with a landscape is.
Like all relationships, there is usually a lot of interest and growth at the beginning as things are new. Then as the relationship matures, a sense of established approach and recognition to what it is you’re doing with the place comes into play.
I think the reason why I settled on a more monochromatic feel this time, is probably twofold: having photographed the place so many times, I think I’m over the idea of trying to convey how colourful it is, and I think I would much rather focus on what I think its strengths are: namely that of form.
Secondly, there is just simply the case of ‘where I’m at’ in terms of being an artist. I think I’ve developed a style to my work over the past while that I am incorporating more and more to any place I visit. It’s as though I am looking for what fits my style, rather than photographing good compositions. There is a difference, and perhaps it is routed in a sense of better understanding and confidence as to what it is that I’m doing, and where I need to go with my art.
We all go through phases of trying different themes and styles. We hopefully evolve and mature. I think the longer I make photographs, the more I understand now that I tend to fluctuate.
I go with my moods and feelings more than with any plan. But there is a lot of precedence: of knowing certain things work, and of knowing what it is that I seem to work best with.
I give myself permission to be as fluid as I am. I cannot fight it, because if I did, I would simply get stuck. So, I have resigned myself to acknowledging that I am simply floating down a river of creativity and if I work with the river, then the passage is much easier. If I try to steer or navigate away through preconceptions about what I think the work should be, then the journey becomes more troublesome and harder.
Creativity is always about positive flow. Find your groove and you’re all set. Think too much or try to force the work to be something it doesn’t want to be, and you end up either stuck or in a difficult place.
I think I’m beyond looking for good photographs. I know what works and what doesn’t, but more importantly, I know what works for me, and I trust the inner confidence that I have gained (like all artists should, over many years of making art and finding out who they really are).