Sharing your Work

"Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon

I'm a relatively new photographer with aspirations of one day becoming a good one.  This pursuit has led me to read and watch lots and lots of creative folks talk about creativity.  Let's be honest -- it's easier to just listen to someone talk about their experiences than have to go out and make those experiences on your own.

The one thing I keep hearing over and over again is "show your work."  Everyone has an online sharing routine -- both with their professional work and personal projects

As Austin Kleon, author of Show Your Work, puts it:

"Almost all of the people I look up to and try to steal from today, regardless of their profession, have built sharing into their routine. These people aren’t schmoozing at cocktail parties; they’re too busy for that. They’re cranking away in their studios, their laboratories, or their cubicles, but instead of maintaining absolute secrecy and hoarding their work, they’re open about what they’re working on, and they’re consistently posting bits and pieces of their work, their ideas, and what they’re learning online. Instead of wasting their time “networking,” they’re taking advantage of the network. By generously sharing their ideas and their knowledge, they often gain an audience that they can then leverage when they need it — for fellowship, feedback, or patronage."

Likewise, Chase Jarvis, photographer and entrepreneur, put it more simply in his creative mornings talk:

"The best way of doing it, is showing it."

So, on that note, here's some photos I took tonight at Marina Bay in Singapore.  It's my first real attempt at night photography & using the new VSCO Film post-processing software I bought.

Enjoy.

 

Grown-ups can play too, especially Jeff Greenspan

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfraven/2545068856

I discovered the artists, Jeff Greenspan, today via the blog, It's Nice That.  He previously was the Chief Creative Officer for Buzzfeed and now freelances his witty work.

I'm absolutely loving his playful style today.  There's no reason adults need to be so serious.

I mean, even Plato believed that play was important:

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” 

And, Ralph Waldo Emerson went as for as calling it a talent:

"It is a happy talent to know how to play" 

So, following in these great mens' footprints, I've started giving my presentations in "meme" form and have been sending out a lot of dancing bear GIFs to accompany my process emails.  I'll report back if their wisdom is doing justice in the business arena.

Maybe I'll get some inspiration from Jeff's work below...

An excellent witticism

"Hipster Traps"

Tourist lanes in NYC

"Letter Bombing"

"Oil Bombing", the precursor to "Photo Bombing"

Foodie Recommendation: "Lucky Peach"

Although cooking blogs are generally amazing (Smitten Kitchen is my personal favorite), there's a (relatively) new cooking magazine, Lucky Peach, by Momofuko chef, David Chang, which is definitely worth buying in analog form.

Now, to be honest, I'm more the beneficiary of Lucky Peach creations, along with the occasional contributor as suy chef, taster and cleaner.  Alan is the head chef in our apartment, which is excellent for me since my natural state of cooking involves assembling store-bought hummus, cheese, crackers and some veggies on a plate, accompanying it with a glass of red wine and then proceeding to eat said "cooking" either on the couch or *sometimes* in bed (yes, I just admitted that). 

For brunch with some friends this weekend, Alan made these Vietnamese omelettes from the magazine, which were absolutely fantastic.   

Now, I'm just waiting for the next volume to come out...

One of My Favorite Commencement Speeches: "This is Water"

Source: WSJ Illustration "This is Water"

I have a soft-spot for graduation commencement addresses -- maybe I'm needy for inspiration, or perhaps I'm always on the verge of a new existential crisis (for the record: both our true).

I've always held Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech as the epitome of graduation speeches -- easy to follow, powerful, quotable.  I've watched it over and over again even with full knowledge that he's not a perfect role model.

Today, I watched David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon Commencement Speech, "This is Water," and I must say, it's excellent -- incredibly thoughtful and tries to shy away from platitudes.  It *might* be even better than Steve Jobs' commencement.

He addresses the point of education:

"It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over"

And the importance of trying to understand life from someone else's perspective:

"The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. I have learned this the hard way, as I predict you graduates will, too. 

Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness because it's so socially repulsive. But it's pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute centre of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real."

And, along the way, he makes you laugh and think.  It's the beauty of David Foster Wallace.

Take 20 minutes out of your day & watch the video below.

[Mental Health Break] Let's dance

How can you not smile looking at this bear?

If Google was a guy...

I like to tell people I can see their searches at work to see their reaction (disclaimer: this is not true).  It scares people.  Makes them uncomfortable.  Squirm in their seat.

Your search history is one of the most private artifacts of your life.  It's the closest thing to reading someone else's mind.  In fact, it was a major relationship milestone when I finally let Alan use my computer, almost on par with moving in together (well, kinda).

So, what if your searches were exposed in real life?  

Would they look anything like these...

[This is Awesome] NextDraft

Why curate your own news when someone else will do it for you?

Dave Pell of Next Draft sends out a daily email newsletter with goodies from around the web.

Funny, insightful & interesting every time.  It's worth the extra email in your inbox.

A First-Hand Account

Walker Evans, 1937

"Stare.  It is a way to educate your eye, and more.  Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop.  Die knowing something.  You are not here long" - Walker Evans

I love documentary photograph.  

I like peering into someone else's life without them knowing.  Call it voyeurism.  Maybe, I'm just "anthropologically-inclined."  Regardless, I had to get off of Facebook several years ago.

As previously mentioned, I'm taking a Coursera class on Art History (yes, get ready for lots of art-related posts), and we reviewed some really eye-opening work last night by some documentary greats (by, "we", I mean myself and my macbook air in bed).

It's amazing how a photograph can make me feel reminiscent, even nostalgic for a life I never lived.

Bill Owens, Suburbia 

Walker Evans, The Great Depression

Carrie Mae Weems, The Kitchen Table Series

Art of Feminism

In my Cal Arts Coursera class, we explored the development of storytelling overtime -- from mainly portraying historical & biblical scenes -- to illustrating "everyday life" in the 19th century (Edouard Manet) -- to replicating scenes that may or may not be real in the 21st century.

In the 1970s, avant-garde female artists used art as a medium to start questioning the traditional role of women in society.  These artworks spurred reflection.  internalization.  They proved that images and stories are just as necessary as debate in creating change.

I've included a few images, videos and an excerpt below.  They made me reflect on the feminist movement -- where we've come and what still needs to happen.  On the plight of moving from an object to a human.  On the freedom to choose a different path in life.

I think we need more art in public discourse.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills

 
Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen

Patti Smith, Piss Factory

Sylvia Plath, Bell Jar

“I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after Ihad children I would feel differently, I wouldn't want to write poems any more. So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state.”  

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

[Mental Health Break] Meet the Wolfdog

I must have missed this Old Spice campaign while living in Singapore.

Man, it's good (can everything be narrated by animals?)

A Map of Modern Art

Wish you better understood Modern Art?  

Well, left and right brain finally come together in this process map below by Albert H. Barr, the first director of the MOMA in NYC.

Now, I finally understand why this painting by Jean Metzinger has a Japanese geisha in the background (this threw me off when replicating in art class a few months ago).

Tokyo Cool

When I applied for my first passport 10 years ago, the thought of traveling around Asia seems far-fetched, at best.  It was so far away.  So foreign.

I couldn't really imagine what exotic places like Thailand or Vietnam looked like.  smelled like.  felt like.

Well, now, I've been.  

They are beautiful and amazing in their own right, but more familiar than expected.  I can hear "Call Me Maybe" on the radio and pick up Doritos at the local 7/11.  While globalization has its strengths (yes, there are actually a few good things, not just sweatshops & Mcdonald's chains), it's not about preserving a unique culture and identity.

Countries and cities are starting to blend together, becoming more beige as the years pass.

Except for Japan.  

Out of all the places I've visited, Japan has one of the most unique cultures, with only less developed places like Mongolia, Bhutan and Burma in the running.

It's incredibly insular -- 98.5% of the population is ethnically Japanese & 99% speak Japanese as their first (and often only) language.  They've created their own rich civilization with artifacts that I've never experienced before, ranging from the beautiful (like this & this) to the weird (like this & this).  Plus, they have some incredible toilets (yes, seat warmers aren't just for cars). 

Even their obsession with "Americana" is truly different (honestly, I wish America was more like the Japanese take on it).

Basically, what I'm trying to say is Japan is really (fucking) cool.  

Do go sometime & check out my photos below.

PS - There's still Carly Rae in Japan, but at least it's confined to private room karakoe.

And now for some color....