Does it happen to you as well? Does it happen to you, that you come to a place that has long been your home, and that your inspiration is simply there, no effort needed?
Today I needed an image and I also wanted to go swimming. I had enough time, and so I decided to make a detour through the region where I have lived for 20 years. 
It’s so much easier there. I don’t need to search for places, I know them. I know where the flowers are, where the water is and I know what to expect under what conditions. It’s home.
And although I know the places, there are still some puzzles left: I have made many images of this fence, and I have not liked a single one. These I do, because they show the essence of this fence, the roughness of old wood, the repetition of the always different, the straight and the crooked.
I don’t mean to imply that one should not go on travels, I’ll do next week, and I don’t mean to say that all people are equal, but at least for me, these home places are much more important for my work than all travels. Sometimes it takes you years to find out how you want or need to photograph a place. How can you expect to go abroad and get it right the first time?
The Song of the Day is “Old Love” from Eric Clapton’s 1991 live album “24 Nights”. See him perform on YouTube, here is part one, and there is part two.
There are 2 comments
Anonymous (2009-09-01)
I have heard that at least for writing, travel is a good inspiration as it allows you experience you do not normally get in your usual surroundings. Unless you are lucky to have a unusually imaginative mind. I like the clown.
Michael
Juha Haataja (2009-08-31)
A great capture of the fence! Old wood (and perhaps old anything) makes for a natural topic for photographs. Or perhaps it is the slow things...
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