Tim Soter… blog.

Yesterday I contributed work for a show put together by my friends at Parlour.  On a monthly basis, Parlour curates shows utilizing nomadic exhibition spaces that presents weekend-long exhibitions in different homes throughout New York City.  The show/party was in celebration of the 1,000,000 birthday of art.

“On January 17, 1963, French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou celebrated the 1,000,000th Birthday of Art, which he determined was born when a sponge was dropped into a bucket of water.”

I made this work fifteen minutes before walking out the door – it felt great to be forced to do something quick and instinctive.  I used some expensive last-batch Polaroid SX-70 film which, having gone through a few airport X-Ray machines, has a really low grade palette to it.  Not overthought (a theme that runs through my posts on Process) the finished piece installed appears BELOW.

ABOVE is the isolated Polaroid.  It really brought me back to fun spontaneous creations of the past.

Occasionally I’ll think about an old assignment and wish that I had the opportunity to do it over, in the style and manner in which I’m currently shooting.  There hasn’t been any radical change over the years, I’d just like to add the knowledge and experience that I’ve gained since that shoot.  It’s like a system software upgrade – simply building on a foundation and making improvements.

At some point though a few years ago, I reached a plateau.  There’s definitely a cut-off where I feel that the work found some solid ground.  Before that plateau, if it were possible I would definitely go back and really redo some assignments/after the plateau I would go back and possibly make some minor adjustments with what I know and do now, but it’s successful where it is.  Things can always be improved but it’s resting on the plateau.

(I could fragment this thread into several different directions.  I had a talk with a friend last night about how well Robert Frank made a strong point of not looking back. I could talk about how obsessive photographers are as we very obviously want to control life, stop time, etc.  That’s all been pretty well covered before.)

Lying in bed this morning, I was thinking the photo ABOVE (made after achieving the plateau.)  I shot this two years ago in a hospital in Syria – I’m really happy with it, it’s part of a full reportage story and it’s a good stand out as an environmental portrait made within the full narrative.  But I was lying in bed thinking… if I were shooting this assignment now I would have reached in my pocket, pulled out my Olympus Stylus and shot a separate photo of that TV in the corner. BELOW is a crop of the digital photo I made that day; it’s an approximation of the photo I would have made with the Stylus had I had it on me. It’s a sketch of a photo that would have been added to the ongoing body of work found at TheShipEscaped.

The plateau is so important for me. It’s such a mark of positive mental health. It’s the difference between obsessing about past “failures” and wanting to apply the excitement of the present.

It’s not what keeps me up at night… but it is what gets me out of bed in the morning.