I watched a documentary with Jack White of the former band White Stripes. He said something profound as he was playing a ratty guitar that looked like he found it in the garbage. He said he played on some guitars that created a struggle: difficult to play because they would not stay in tune and actually sucked to work with. We all are educated to reach for perfection and Jack was looking for imperfection. Of course he could afford the best but chose to search out sounds that the best could not always give: looking for sounds that were different than the norm. This reminded me of Parker J Pfister. He showed me his slew of old lenses that fit on his Fuji XE-1 that created a struggle. These were manual focusing lenses that sucked to work with yet created a look that was imperfect. Parker has embraced imperfection. I have seen that in his work for a long time. He created actions to rip up a perfectly great shot and splash it with tintype problems. He runs from conformity. I like that about him! His images are interestingly different and unique. We search for perfection and perhaps that is not always a good thing. If everyone is playing in the clean and clear perfection pool, who is left that likes the mud? I want to go play in the mud! I think for Jack White the ‘Struggle’ was half the fun!
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:18:46 +0000
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