I started reading The Big Payback by Dan Charnas recently, which chronicles the history and development of hip hop. It’s a great read for anyone interested. One of the things that really stuck with me was how organically rap developed. It wasn’t so much that someone said “OK, I’m going to create this totally radical, all new thing,” as it was that one small idea followed the next and the next from this person and that person. Eventually, as this random mix of ideas coagulated, it became a music wholly different from any precursor. I couldn’t help but think the same applies to photography.
I was just reading a thread on Digital Wedding Forum about whether it’s better to tone for the flavor of the month or for timelessness. I think it’s probably known that I’m not a fan of timeless. But, honestly, I really don’t care what someone chooses. Conviction is more important than style in my mind. But this did occur to me as I was reading. Big changes come from small things. No one knows whether a change will be short-lived or enduring. If it fizzles, we call it a trend. But if it lasts, we call it a movement. It becomes its own school of thought. And when you’re in it, there’s no real way to tell what is going to be what.
People talk about pictures dating. Becoming old. Not being appreciated in 50 years. And it may be true that pictures date. But timeless pictures date, too. And spending time preoccupied with what people will think in 50 years seems like folly in my mind. I can’t even guess what I’ll like in 5 years, much less other people in 10, 20, or 50. For that matter, I can barely guess what people will like at the moment. I think a better place to focus is on the present. Whatever will be, will be.
The reason I don’t like timelessness really has nothing to do with the look. There are any number of wonderful images that have a “timeless” quality to them. What I don’t like is the process. If timeless is your standard, where do you go with it? More times than not, when I hear someone trumpeting the timeless, it’s accompanied by a rejection of the new. The problem is that the only way to know something is timeless is to look back at established standards of acceptability. But that means the proof of quality needs to precede the pursuit of it, putting the cart before the horse. However, trends and movements emerge from a soup of random but not independent ideas that are very often a distinct reaction against the established or the timeless. They are all about the new.
As a process, emergence matters. It is change that powers growth. Every new idea is a seed for the next. It’s true both for individuals and as cultures. It’s true for small ideas and big ones. Even ideas that die lead to other new ones. When we allow ourselves to forget about the rules, step out of ourselves, and forget about worrying about what works and what doesn’t, we grow that much faster. It’s about nudging yourself forward. Trying on something you don’t like, just to see how it feels. Because even the most trivial and unassuming thoughts can eventually catalyze to become the biggest of things.
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