In Praise Of Shit Photography

The allure of burner shots

Housekeeping

Hello photo friends. Here we are again in this safe little corner of the internet where words are king and I almost feel like I’m blogging, even though I never did blog when it was king, but I definitely thought about it.

Here are some things that are new since we last spoke…

• Everyone in my family got sick except me *touchwood

• I got a cool gig working with KEKS (the people that make those compact lightmeters)

• Shot a roll of Santa Color at a classic car festival like a total film photo bro cliche and I loved it and can’t wait to see the scans. (Subscribe so you don’t miss out)

• Worked on something new called “Lumen Studio” which is coming soon. I’m excited to have a place that is dedicated to content creation, small business and talking about social media in a non-gross, trending audio, viral video strategy, robot voice, annoying bullshit way that just forces us all to be subjected to more mind rotting content that doesn’t even really have a purpose

• Realised that the album Dogging by Australian band “Low life” came out 10 years ago and then I felt really really old when I realised that I was starting to be that person that tells you about when they bought the album when it first came out and how they saw them in their early days etc. I even have one of their cassette tapes. #old

• My portfolio reviews are on sale right now for the rest of this month in a bid to offer anyone who feels they need some clarity, direction a second opinion or who wants to access my help via email with their photography work or even their social media/content struggles. I’m here for you and happy to answer any questions, offer resources and insights.

I realise that was kind of a mixed bag of bullet points so if you are still reading, thanks, and please do read on.

Shit Happens

When Lux and I first met we realised we had more in common than the average co-workers at our place of employment did. This included your 90’s big hitters like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Weezer (mainly the blue album) and a few other usual suspects that most indie cardigan wearing folks would give the seal of approval to like, The Smiths, Joy Division….need I go on at the risk of sounding like the plot to 500 Days Of Summer.

I tell you this to make a point, not to skip down memory lane in a newsletter that professes to be about photography. So after some time I did what any good indie girl who is in love with a boy (man really in this story but boy sound more indie movie vibes so just go with me) and I made a playlist for him.

Only this playlist didn’t really land how I thought it would because I hadn’t had the chance to quite understand Lux’s relationship to music. I assumed it was just like mine. Wrong.

This was a playlist of what I would call total underground gems, I was flexing the obscure muscle of the time I had spent being a part of the music scene in the city and all that I had lapped up over my long career of waitressing and going to gigs and obsessing over music.

I later learned that Lux had pulled over in the car on the way home whilst listening to this playlist in a panic, thinking his BOSE speaker system in his Mazda was broken! Perplexed by how awful things were sounding he assumed that something must be wrong? Where was the bass? Why did it sound like it was recorded in a bedroom?

Probably because it had been.

Anyway this is something he told me that both made me laugh and also made me wonder why anyone would care about that?

Learning that he was indeed a sound engineer for a good portion of his working life and somewhat of, what I would call, an audio snob, it all started to make sense.

He was hi-fi and I was lo-fi and that’s why we worked and still work, so well together.

High Low baby.

So what does this have to do with photography?

I pretty much approach and enjoy photography in the exact same way as I do music…the shittier the better.

Well sort of…less as I get older actually but still with that same draw to the image or song that is a little off, isn’t perfect, is ignorant to it’s shortcoming or is intentionally incompetent in order to create an imperfect result in the hope that it will be an interesting one.

Lux and I photograph differently as well and it never ceases to amaze me how two people so close can take photos on the same day with the same camera, even of the same thing and it’s totally different. This is why I love photography so much and all of what I just said is why AI will never replace what we do. So you can stop worrying now.

I love to come up with names for different styles of photography that I do, or rather the styles within my style.

I call all of the shots you’ve seen in this issue so far “Burner Shots”

You know like a “Burner Phone” in a gritty British crime show that has a few dodgy calls made from it and then it gets chucked in the ocean or smashed with a rock to destroy the evidence?

Burner photos are the ones I take when I feel like saying Fuck You to everything.

I take them when I feel lazy or when I want to be flippant with my camera and my film, you know, act like it’s nothing. It’s a shit shot but I hope there is something magic to it and there is a level of arrogance in that which makes it even shittier.

It’s hoping i’ll come up with something great without trying at all and then having this realisation that it was just sitting in me all this time and all I had to do was “let go man” and it would just pour out of me with zero application.

It’s very idealistic and it’s quite childish but it pleases the 2014 version of myself that drank VB and though it was cool not to try.

I have accepted it’s a mode I go into when I shoot sometimes and that’s okay. Very occasionally it works too and that just fuels the burner mode even more and gives me a thrill that I imagine one gets from gambling, although I have never done it so I can’t comment.

So this is my gamble and a little throw away frame I snap to see if something genius will come back.

Sometimes it does kind of work…I took this at night with my L35AF and I couldn’t see at all to compose it and the flash is really what is carrying this image let’s be honest but…

It was exhibited in Germany at a group earlier this year so you never know where your burners will take you.

I’m interested to know if you guys have any games you play with yourself when you are out shooting or do I need some kind of therapy?