Bresson was right (for his time)

This entry is based on a few curious coincidences in conversations lately.

"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." - Henri Cartier-Bresson


This quote has always meant something to me. I have the proof sitting in a huge box of negatives that I will probably never go through. When mentoring people I would always say this quote. In fact, I was speaking to one of my best friends last night and he was referring to one of his first experiences when he was trying to get mentorship from someone that told him, "You wanna learn something? Put some damn film through the camera." Now that is a somewhat irresponsible mentor, but in one way he is right. You can learn theory all day, but if you aren't practicing it, then how the hell are you supposed to truly learn. 

Then I was reading the Apple Pro Training Series on Aperture 2 (ISBN: 0321539931) today because I decided to attempt to become Apple certified pro. I am paraphrasing, but the author speaks about how (understanding how photographer to photographer may vary) the shooting ratios between a photographer in the days of film and the days of digital is about 20:1. This means that since the advent of digital and the ease of capturing hundreds of images on one card, a photographer now captures an average of 20 times more images than he did when he was shooting 36 frames on a roll of film.

So if we take this opinion and compare it to Bresson's quote of 10,000 photographs (film days) being the worst, then wouldn't that mean Cartier (had he been around today) would be better saying your first 200,000 photographs are your worst?

I believe it. The path of photography isn't simply found overnight and accomplished without making a few mistakes and if we really think about how much an average photographer can shoot in a day, that really isn't an unrealistic number. Now to go back to what my friend was told when he was young, that doesn't mean to just go out and shoot wildly like a madman shooting an uzi with his eyes closed. There has to be some thought behind what you do. Learning something new with every frame that is captured/created. Finding a mentor to point out the faults and successes in your shots so you can go back out and learn from those mistakes and successes. 

It isn't just about pointing composing your background, filling your frame and waiting for the moment like Bresson used to also teach... or is it?

Another one of my friends is definitely learning that this year. He is currently going through the military's advanced photojournalism program at Syracuse. When I first met him (3 years ago), he didn't even know what the 'P' stood for on the camera. In the two years before becoming one of four Navy photographers to be accepted to Syarcuse, he shot his butt off. I am sure, like me, after he graduates, he will put all those (200K) images he shot prior to Syracuse in a box and probably never look at them again.


With that I will refer you to a small snippet of Bresson on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlUWznm1ufU&feature=PlayList&p=A7F83E7D47CB6DD9&playnext=1&index=33

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