Arno Minkkinen.

[timor]

Found this some time ago:
The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography
Might be helpful, good teachings.

 

[Dave442]

Very nice piece. In my photography, I usually feel that the bus I was on crashed and after a bit of aimless walking I end up on a bus going somewhere else entirely from the original destination.

 

[timor]

Very nice piece. In my photography, I usually feel that the bus I was on crashed and after a bit of aimless walking I end up on a bus going somewhere else entirely from the original destination.

Ha ha ha ! Use then the Switzerland analogy.

 

[Dave442]

Very nice piece. In my photography, I usually feel that the bus I was on crashed and after a bit of aimless walking I end up on a bus going somewhere else entirely from the original destination.

Ha ha ha ! Use then the Switzerland analogy.

Well, I have not stepped back to see what my long term goal with photography is. Guess I should start watching for that mountain off in the distance, with my hair like it is I am certainly close to timberline.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, a pretty good article. Some interesting thoughts in it. As he puts it, "Stay on the f***ing bus." An interesting idea!

I think there's way too much worry about doing the same thing as others...way too much emphasis on creating new things, as if those who came before somehow "own" entire genres. I think it's utterly stupid to think that because say Helmut Newton photographed erotic nudes, that the entire genre is played out and useless. Same with Sally Mann...she doesn't "own" large format shots of kids, or even of dead animal skeletons....same with all the other genres...the idea of "imitation" is warned of far too often. I say this not just due to this one writer's article, but about others who I'm reading currently, warning about "imitating" prior works...because if the idea that value only comes from utter originality is true, then NOTHING done after about 1900 is "original"...all the ideas were shot in the first six decades. Nudes? Alllll derivative. Allllllllll just "imitations" of what was done before. Portraiture? Allllllllll nothing more than imitation. As he writes, if one just stays on the bus, soon one will discover that one has made one's very own way in the world.

 

[Dikkie]

"You might find yourself there, one day too."

I did As true Finland fan, been to Helsinki, but did not take a local city bus on that square at all...
However, I did take another bus, these typical airport shuttle busses, not at the same square, but on the other side of the railway station.

I took a tram... circle line, stayed on it, looked around throughout the window, until I was back on my original stop where I got in, saw a lot for € 2.

To make a short story long: I haven't understood anything from that article... Guess I was already lost after a few phrases.

I need to get back to Helsinki someday... In march, it's been 10 years ago that I made that trip. Will scan some old film to post someday !

 

[Dikkie]

NOTHING done after about 1900 is "original"...all the ideas were shot in the first six decades. Nudes? Alllll derivative. Allllllllll just "imitations" of what was done before. Portraiture? Allllllllll nothing more than imitation. As he writes, if one just stays on the bus, soon one will discover that one has made one's very own way in the world.

When playing the guitar, I sometimes think: "damn, this melody is probably already been made by someone else before... have to think about creating something different."

Maybe all melodies already been made multiple times, ... or if not: when will be this day, there will be a break even point where all things are already made?
Wouldn't think this kind of creativity is unlimited. But at some point, some combinations of rhythms, melodies, speeds, chord progressions will all have been made.
You will have this kind of stuff with photography too... if the same composition, model, viewpoint, position, color, bokeh,... is already been done once...

Staying in your own world or bus, is the best thing indeed. Not listening to other music to get influenced, not looking to other pictures at all ... let your own ideas flow.