LOST AND FOUND

By MICHAEL PERKINS

THIS PLATFORM WAS NEVER ABOUT MERE GEAR OR TECHNIQUE. Looking at the blogosphere of a dozen years ago, I decided that it was saturated with how-to’s and equipment reviews, things that I had found had less and less to do with how I was actually trying to make pictures. And so, from the start, The Normal Eye has been about intentionality. What was I trying to do? How close did I come? What was in me that had to change to make images “work” better? And what could I learn that might be helpful to others like myself?

One of the by-products of all this is that it’s taught me to look, photographically, for evidence of other people’s intentionality; to try to chronicle their magical transformation between thinking about a thing and becoming that thing. Take as an example the young dancer seen here, who began her improvised dance in the surf by randomly frolicking down the beach for a photographer friend. I happened upon the scene from afar, using a telephoto to maintain a healthy distance from the pair so as not to interfere with their process. And then I saw something wondrous.

Within a few seconds, the young woman went from letting a thing happen to her to trying, intentionally, to control and direct it. She went from participating to creating. She tore herself loose from the state of being “found” in something planned, to becoming blissfully “lost” in something of her own making. Whatever “this” was, it was no longer a series of poses. Now, it was a dance.

In a moment, I was reminded of what I had been seeking, millions of photographs ago, when I began all this. This blog’s name is subtitled with the word “journey” for a reason. I was learning, day by day, how to trust my own instincts beyond the mere technical mastery of a craft, dancing as intentionally as I could toward the edge of art. Sometimes, it still feels like I am just alone on a beach, twirling around aimlessly. But, in some miraculous moments, my footwork changes. I can hear a rhythm. I leave behind the “found” world and find myself giddily “lost”

And then I can dance.