There is no such thing as boredom, just boring people. ~ Mothers and Fathers everywhere
I’m sure most of us have heard that phrase sometime in our past. We may even have said it ourselves. For me, a curious person in more ways than one, this is true. I can’t remember the last time I was bored.
Chapter 7 of The Practice of Contemplative Photography
As photographers, we usually reach a point with a subject where we start to get bored and want to move on to something new. The authors challenge us right at the beginning of this chapter by saying,
Boredom is merely a symptom that you haven’t opened your eyes wide enough.
It’s not that we won’t move on at some point, but I think they’re saying that, when you start to feel that boredom or uncertainty about what to do next, you are right on the edge of your best creative potential.
No subject is ever finished. The number of perceptual possibilities is always infinite.
One question that ask yourself when you start to feel the boredom is whether you’re photographing for others – will they like it? Will they find your perception interesting?
Or, are you willing to dig deeper and find your fresh perceptual view, regardless of whether others approve. This is certainly something I’ve wrestled with at times.
The authors recommend doing a 20-shot assignment of something not normally considered interesting. I did it today with my sneakers, after returning from a walk. Around image 13, I started to feel that boredom. I wasn’t sure what to do next and I had 7 more to go. I recognized the feeling and went on. Before I checked again, I had 25 shots.
The image above was the 25th shot. I picked it to show here because, of course, I love abstracts. But this shot pulls together everything I realized and appreciated about my shoes by the time I was finished – their design, the stitching created by the people in China who made them, the wear and tear they’ve gone through.
Boredom means you are still separate from your subject. You haven’t really tapped into its essence.
Boredom is a judgment and is only in the mind of the beholder.
Boredom is a sign that you are entering uncharted territory. Why is that so scary?
Related Articles
Tara Sophia Mohr interviews Gwen Bell on social media, boredom, and mindless surfing
Kim – what a great post. To think that boredom is really the line showing us when we need to push a little further. I have the tendency to take a shot or two and then move on to the next thing. In keeping with my word for 2012, EXPLORE, I certainly need to spend time developing depth in my shooting.
I seem to recall that you did an experiment last year where you took about 90 shots of one thing. It does push the edges, doesn’t it?