Picture: Scotty Barnhart playing at the 52nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey, California
For nearly a decade my music tastes had reached a plateau. Years ago I was only listening to the radio; I hadn’t yet gotten an iThingy or loaded my music into iTunes. I don’t know what broke the camel’s back, but at one point I felt my audible ambiance had stagnated. I resolved to actively start seeking out more ‘new-to-me’ music. About that time Pandora surfaced. I started finding new artists, and looking them up on YouTube, listening to playlists and making my own. Recently I discovered NPR’s 24/7 stream of their show, All Songs Considered. It’s a collection of all the songs they’ve featured over the last ten years. When listening in iTunes, it tells me who the artist is, so if something catches my attention, I can track more down elsewhere.
Just when I think my music collection, which has hundreds of CD’s copied into my HD and iTunes had reached a respectable size, I was ‘gifted’ a musical collection by my old college friend who was moving overseas. He wanted me to have access to, and keep a back-up copy of his music on a HD. I said, “Sure!” I really respect his musical tastes, and he had his own show on the college radio station. The one word I used to describe his tastes, which coincides with my own is ‘eclectic.’ I knew I’d be getting some good stuff, seeing his collection was over 200Gb & 35,000 files. I’ve already found some wonderful music, and I can’t wait to discover more.
So what does this have to do with photography? On the surface; not much. On a deeper level, we can sometimes become stuck in a visual rut if the only other visual work we ‘see’ coincides with our own personal photography pursuits. If you’re only paying attention to landscape photos because that’s what you shoot; or birds, portraits, or street photography, watch out for your own form of incoming visual stagnation. My Advice, take the time to actively look at work being produced outside your own personal sphere. There’s a lot of great stuff being produced out there. Use your senses and indulge expanding your palette a bit.
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Image ID#: cmt-2122
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Totally agreed Gary, and envious of your inheritance. Honestly, I prefer looking at other genres of photography more than nature photography these days for inspiration because most of what I see these days feels soulless to me, like people are trying to be like someone else rather than themselves in that genre.
I agree also Gary. I have felt rather stagnant creatively for awhile. This is why I have signed up for a photo session in some abandoned Detroit buildings, something I have never done before. I like some of the work I see from these places, and figured I would give it a shot.
I also love Pandora, All things, and just exploring iTunes for discovering new music. I also have a college friend who now hosts an internet radio station (Strangeways Radio) and they usually play stuff from bands I have never heard of.
In my observation, music is more obviously either original or derivative. Also, the general public is much more educated about music, with more sophisticated discernment regarding its quality than with photographs.