Sunday, November 15, 2009

Stumble and blunder

Many people may not know that professional photographers with a reputation also fail often to make good pictures.
This is such a well kept secret because these bastards never show to anybody how bad they sometimes are.
The picture out of focus.
Made on the wrong moment.
The light not good.
Even the champions of photography manage to make such failed pictures.

What these professional photoguys and imagegals do after a shooting is something they call "editing".
They say: "I have been editing my pictures".
Which in fact means that they have been throwing into the rubbish bin all those images even a bad amateur photographer would not likely make.
The very few excellent pictures that remain on the table after this "editing" are only exceptions out of the many that had to be made to get some good ones.
Meanwhile the audience believes that the photographer is a master of the trade.
But if the failed pictures were seen, the opinion would dramatically alter.


As loyal and fervent blog readers know, at this place surprising and provoking things can be seen and read.
What you are going to see today, probably you have never seen before.

It was Christina Gonzales who asked to come to the birthday party of her daughter.
Lucretia turned 3 years old.
"And can you make some pictures, Miguel?"
Of course: that is what friends are for, right?

Then, would it be interesting to publish on this blog the edited pictures of Lucretia's birthday party?
The best ones, keeping intact the reputation of this photographer?
On second thought it was realized that those pictures would not harm the reputation but would be very boring.
Without any excitement or specific interest.

Therefore the management has decided to publish not the successful pictures but the failed ones.
The ones a professional photographer would be ashamed of.
The ones that immediately would have been dumped into the garbage.
So we can get a rare look behind the scenes.
To demonstrate that even a photographer who has his work in the collections of the major museums around the world can stumble and blunder as well.














5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But Michel, those are GREAT pictures !!!

Anonymous said...

Some of the best I have ever seen you take.

Anonymous said...

An incredible sequence!

Anonymous said...

Please contact us. We would like to do a show of these new pictures in our museum.
Frits Gierstberg, Head Curator Nederlands Foto Museum, Rotterdam

Fred Wishnie said...

It's amazing! After all these years, you are still improving. Bravo!