32. Letting Go

Most photographers are control freaks.  Obsessive, detail oriented, consumed. They need to be in total control and are uncomfortable, unsatisfied, and unfulfilled otherwise.  Most photographers are also perfectionists. Why?  Do we live in a perfect world?  Why do so many artists strive for consummate perfection in their work?  Who determined perfection as a goal?  Perfection in art is often boring, static, antiseptic, and  soul less. Dali says that perfection is unattainable, so why bother?

Photographers must be able to let go.  There should be an open – ended, brainstorming, free flowing mentality to one’s work.  Do not misunderstand.  An artist must be the master of light, technique, process, and subject matter.  The photographer must be the technical expert of “how to do” what he is doing, knowing the rules, guidelines, expectations?  Now, have the guts to break the rules, do the opposite, “cast it to the wind”, free float, do a technical “bungee jump”!  See what happens.  If it is not perfect, perhaps it is not supposed to be.

Dance with recklessness in your art.  Go to the edge, your “limit” and do a tap dance on it.  Obliterate your edges, no boundaries.  Embrace the unexpected, the unusual.  Take a second look at what you consider a mistake.  Often mistakes are gifts in your art, a direction you might never have thought of, or an artistic deviation from the path that you thought you were on.  You will not be receptive to the unexpected, to change, to anything new in your art without letting go of perfection.  Question less, accept more as a possibility in your art.  Adapt. Let go.  Let your art be free.