Uncertainty

Just read an excellent interview in the NY TIMES with longtime street photographer Alex Webb -- here are a few choice observations:

My photography at its purest is about response, about visual exploration, about discovery. On one level, if I knew what it was I wanted in advance, I'm not sure I would choose photography as a medium. Part of what excites me about photography is its very uncertainty, the fact that it is not just the photographer, but the vagaries of the world that result in the photograph. If I had a greater inkling of just what I wanted in advance, why not choose a medium where there is much greater imaginative control, like painting?

I feel the space, the light, the color, the form and the scene simultaneously. I'm not thinking, I'm sensing the street. For me, color isn't just about color, light isn't just about light, space isn't just about space, form isn't just about form. I'm intrigued with the emotional and sensory tenor of these elements.

 It's not just up to me whether a photograph will be successful. The world is my collaborator as well. I believe it was Charles Harbutt, in his afterword to "Travelog," who wonders when he's looking for a photograph if perhaps that same photograph is also looking for him.