Aminus3: Creative Act

The submission of a submission and the better omission

I thought this prompt would be difficult because I don’t shoot humans and I don’t shoot action. It turned out to be easier than I expected because I didn’t have many to choose from.

The only creative act that I could have possibly recorded would have to have been my own. From time-to-time I capture myself reflected in the scene being shot. It can be inadvertent, but such photos are fewer and further between as I’ve gained experience with the camera. Usually when it happens, shooting myself is unavoidable with the crop planned in advance, as I angle myself away from the real subject.

I was able to find examples of both instances. I think that the inadvertent one is the the better picture, but the unavoidable one best fulfilled the prompt. So, while I prefer the omission it communicates cryptically, the submission is clearer in its depiction the creative act of recording the photo.

They are both posted here, so you can decide if I made the right decision.

Submission

Submission (Pandemic Portrait) recorded in Toronto on the thirtieth of May twenty-twenty

Here’s the photo that was submitted. I just connected that the submission depicts submission.

Recorded in Toronto in May twenty-twenty when Covid was novel and we were naive and could still believe that it might be possible to flatten the curve if we all wished hard enough. I remember the banging of pots and pans on the high-rise balconies and the hope that it sounded like solidarity rather than a death rattle.

The homemade mask was next to useless but probably better than the nothing available for purchase at the time. Cut from the cloth of a repurposed dress shirt, at least the Supima cotton was comfortable.

I thought there was more to it when I snapped it, but back at the lab, I wasn’t able to make it make sense. The best I could do was a self-portrait or at least just about half of one and the old hidden camera trick. The photo always seemed a failure until Aminus3 salvaged it with a prompt.

Omission

Untitled (The Artist as an Apparition) recorded in Toronto on the twenty-fourth of September twenty-twenty-four

Here’s the picture that was omitted. Of the two up for consideration, it’s leaps and bounds better, but I also understand how it might be difficult to see its quality at first glance. Especially at web resolution on a smaller screen. Even at full resolution, it took a while to grow on me.

But grow on me, it did. What I first considered shortcomings, I came to consider strengths. Not the least of which is my reflection. I saw it as an inadvertent flaw, until I saw it as a manifestation, an apparition of the intention embedded in this and therefore every recording.

My shirt blends in but you can see my arms just off centre towards the bottom. The camera is obscured but my hands imply the creative act, or at least that I’m taking the photo. The image was recorded in Toronto and is included in the album Like There’s No Tomorrow.