2015/02/28
Categories: A Matter of Record, Either/Or . . Author: mrdplus . Comments: Leave a comment
“Critics have made a career out of accusing me of having a career of confounding expectations. Really? Because that’s all I do. That’s how I think about it. Confounding expectations.
‘What do you do for a living, man?’
‘Oh, I confound expectations.’
You’re going to get a job, the man says, ‘What do you do?’ ‘Oh, confound expectations.’ And the man says, ‘Well, we already have that spot filled. Call us back. Or don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ Confounding expectations. What does that mean? ‘Why me, Lord? I’d confound them, but I don’t know how to do it.'”
Better late than never: Joel Meyerowitz is posting (at least) a picture a day for this calendar year, along with more text than yours truly usually provides. (For anything.) And you can hear his voice in that text.
“I let nothing happen without considering it an opportunity to see freshly what I think I already know.
“I am responsible for everything in the frame, and if that is a given, then I must validate it by seeing everything there is to see, and knowing that opens up my mind (the mind’s eye) which makes me more alert to seeing what else there may be nearby.
“This process of cumulative engagement is what I find so thrilling about the act of making photographs. It is ongoing and ever stimulating. One never knows what is coming next.”