Tag: ted orland

Most of my art sucks. Yours, too.

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Thought for the weekend:

To be honest, most of my pictures suck. The saving grace of that admission is that most of your pictures suck, too. How could I possibly know such a thing? Because most of everybody’s pictures suck, that’s how. I’ve seen Cartier-Bresson’s contact sheets, and most of his pictures sucked. One of my teachers said that it was an epiphany for him when he took a class from Garry Winogrand and learned that most of Winogrand’s exposures sucked. It’s the way it is.

— Mike Johnston, of 37th Frame, The Online Photographer, etc. fame, in his essay,The Magic Bullet

So how do you deal with most of your art sucking? The insanely excellent book, Art & Fear: Observations on the Peril (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, has some outstanding thoughts on the subject. If you like that one, chase it with Orland’s follow-up, The View From The Studio Door: How Artists Find Their Way In An Uncertain World. I keep meaning to write reviews of both of them but never seem to find the time to do it properly. For now I’ll just say that they’re the best investments in artmaking I’ve ever made.

Interview with Ted Orland!

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Paul Butzi writes at The Online Photographer:

I’m a big fan of Ted Orland‘s books (especially Art and Fear [with David Bayles] and The View from the Studio Door), so I’m delighted to be able to point readers to an in-process online interview of Orland.

The interview started this past Sunday, it’s still going on, and it looks like it’s going to be well worth following.

What he said! I recommend the hell out of both books to anyone who makes art of any kind: photographers, writers, painters, dancers, musicians, sculptors… you, me, them… everybody, everybody! If I grabbed you by the throat, threw you up against a wall, and pushed the books in your face while screaming, "YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST! FUCKING! READ THIS!!!", with the force of a thousand suns, it would still fall short of conveying how strongly I feel about them.

In addition to being a great author, Orland is an accomplished photographer who now mainly shoots with a Holga.

Read the interview at The Well

Via The Online Photographer

Looks like a new must-read: The View From The Studio Door, by Ted Orland

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Paul Butzi writes in his blog entry, Another Instant Classic from Ted Orland on The Online Photographer:

I had been thinking pretty hard about photography and art when I came across a book that Orland had co-written with David Bayles, Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking. This little book asks (and answers) questions like ‘Why should we make art?’ and ‘Why is it so hard for artists to continue making art?’ When I came across it in 1997 or so, I thought I’d come across one of those happy, synchronistic coincidences—a book that was just right for me came along at the exact moment I was ready for it. Since then, though, I’ve come to realize that it’s a timeless classic—that every artist faces many of the same hurdles, and Bayles and Orland drew on their experience to give us pragmatic, practical ways to not only get started making art we care about but to overcome the hurdles and roadblocks that so often result in our not picking up the camera for months on end.

This is pretty much my exact take on Art & Fear, except that I just discovered it a few months ago. I have since been ramming it down the throat of suggesting it to every artist—be they photographer, potter, dancer, painter, writer, musician, whatever—that I know. I’ve been meaning to do a review of it but haven’t found the time to even try to do it justice.

Ted Orland, co-author of Art & Fear (and noted toy camera photographer), has just come out with a new book, View from the Studio Door: How Artists Find Their Way in an Uncertain World (not available from Amazon until 15 April, 2006, though it seems to be available everywhere else).

He writes, "In The View From The Studio Door I’ve tried to confront many broader issues that stand to either side of that artistic moment of truth.

Issues like:

  • What are we really doing when we make art?
  • For that matter, what is art, anyway?
  • Is there art after graduation?
  • How do we find our place in the artistic community?

"These are questions that count, because when it comes to artmaking, theory & practice are always intertwined. Simply put, this is a book of practical philosophy—written by, and for, working artists."

I’m picking up a copy today and will post more once I’ve read it. In the mean time, I do suggest reading Paul Butzi’s comments on it. It’s got all the poop and he says it better than I can.