andy cogbill .com

In case you haven’t noticed in my latest posts, my photography of people is all but extinct. You might wonder why that is. And though I can’t give you any exact reasons for this extinction, I will say that a few days ago I took my camera out shooting and tried to resume everything as normal but, as I continued to frame the world around me, I began to realize just how ridiculous people look. Whether they walking or talking or smoking, they just look silly to me now, and silliness is hardly part of the beauty that I look for when I put my eye to the viewfinder.

Also, I think that the “funny or poignant street scene” is so commonplace now that I can hardly attempt to innovate on that front. Ironic moments amuse me now as much as ever, but I can only take so much of their creation (or, more accurately, documentation) — and I believe I hit my limit with the “Big Apple” photo. I couldn’t tell you why, but that shot marked a rather sudden shift in my photography.

So my eyes wander elsewhere now, searching for new beauty in new places. Color and light are my new subjects, and if a person enters my frame and I like the result, I’ll keep it, but I’m done looking for those funny or meaningful “moments” of human interaction. I think Garry Winnogrand recorded pretty much every possible one and in my search for originality, I’m going to do something a little different from now on.