Feels like a memory

It’s become a running joke in my family that a don’t seem to bother with sharp photos anymore. That’s not quite true, of course. I do actually try to make sharp photos too, but I really like to interject with messy, imperfect photos in-between. My son calls them “lively” photos.

When given a choice between two images, one perfectly sharp and one with a tiny bit of motion blur, I almost always favor the less perfect one. It’s not just in my own work either. I feel the same for technically imperfect photos of photographers like Peter Lindbergh, Vincent Peters and John Dolan too.

I’ve tried to articulate for myself what it is that draws me in with photos like that. It’s something more than that they feel true, or full of life. I’ve realized it’s a feeling of nostalgia. To borrow a phrase from Tom Wright, photos like this feel like a memory to me.

I’ve found that you can’t really force this. Putting on an ND filter and manufacture motion blur at noon on a summer’s day won’t ever look believable. All you can do is to set up advantageous circumstances and then let the photos happen. In practical terms, I allow my camera to go down to 1/15th of a second when light fades and then let the missed focus and motion blur serendipitously appear.