Chasing the summer dream

I am surrounded by such great photography all the time that  sometimes it can be  overload. It can become so overwhelming that  sometimes I cling to certain photographers, styles or images and I forget my own way of seeing. I forget that I have two legs to stand on, two eyes to see the world and one brian to interpret it all. Most importantly, I forget that I  have one soul to feel it.

Feeling is something you can’t imitate, you can imitate lighting, and posture and mood but you can’t imitate someone’s soul. You can cop another photographer’s style, but even if the work’s good, someone will always be able to tell it is not yours. The hardest thing to do as a photographer is get over your influences – that person you’re convinced just has more talent than you – and realize that you alone have the power to make the pictures you want to make. It’s not about the school you went to or the camera you have, but the way you feel. What photography or poetry or any art is about is allowing someone to drop their guard and become overwhelmed with the emotion of a moment. A truly inspiration work of art allows you to feel life so deeply that you  don’t care who you are like being nearly brought to tears by WCW’s words in a crowded laundry mat; feeling a tinge in the corner of your eyes as you breathe in the words off the page.

A moment like that makes you realize that inspiration is inside.