OK, I’m a little late to the game here, but I love the Grand Rapids Lip Dub. I just saw it for the first time over the weekend, and it blew me away. It was produced in response to a Newsweek article declaring Grand Rapids one of the ten worst cities to live in, and, wow, what a reply.
It’s just the type of idea that would never survive the wedding world. If it were placed in the hands of wedding vendors, it would have been styled to the hilt and built to show off every ounce of skill we had. Maybe you’d get the high contrast, deep-shadow toning. Maybe you’d get the magenta tinted, soft-focused vintage film look. Maybe you’d even get little bits of synthesized film flare creeping in and out of the scene. Everything would be shot at 1.2.
And if that’s how it were done, no one would have given a rat’s ass about it. It would never have gone viral, Ebert would never have called it the best music video ever, and it would have died a small, insignificant death. But that’s not how it went down. Something like this – it had to be vanilla plain. It’s about unabashed heart in a way that only comes when people are willing to put themselves out there, feel a little silly, and do it with every ounce of pride they have in their body.
This isn’t just saying Grand Rapids counts. It’s saying that American life counts. That the simple things matter. That the normal is the best part of it all, and that the pedestrian things that those of us who are too-cool-for-school will smack down in smug superiority are everything. And I’m buying it. That’s a message worth fighting for. Looking uncool to stand up for something never looked so cool. Looking too cool to say something, on the other hand, can be most distinctly uncool. Case in point – Brad Pitt’s Chanel commercial. Creepy.
If you have something to say, be brave. Don’t let style get in the way. Yes, you’ve gotta know the looks. You’ve gotta have a look. And I’m not going to say that the Grand Rapids Lip Dub is Citizen Kane. But this is a profession where the pull of style and the gloss of refinement constantly tug at you, and it makes it easy to forget the rest. Pay heed to the value of the simple things. Great photography sees the complex, but it also sees the simple, and those who capture it will always have something worth saying and worth shooting.
Watch Bill Cunningham New York. It’s a documentary about street fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. He wanders the City mercilessly, looking for pictures of the latest fashions. The pictures look awful. But damn, he has an eye. Not for photographic technique, but for fashion. For what’s up and coming. For seeing the fabric (excuse the pun) of society and knowing where it’s going. If he shoots it, you know it’s going to be hot. And with that singular interest, he turns the subject of style into substance. Were it that his pictures looked better we’d see only the photography and forget the fashion. We’d lose his message, and the craft would overwhelm the vision.
Photography is observation. Plain and simple. It needs to show what you see. In your heart. In your mind. Not just for business, not just for show, but for you being the singular person on this planet entrusted to care about this thing happening in front of you between two people. We’re all in business. People have their expectations. Do what you need to do. Just don’t let it overwhelm the plain, simple truth of who you are.
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