STRAWBERRYFIELDS FOREVER

Every picture should be built on a standalone idea. No matter where the picture takes you the idea wil stay put to give the thing some substance.

Strawberryfields Forever the Beatles song is just like that. It has its weird complicated side but underneath theres a song with John playing along on guitar. The song itself sounds good without all the other stuff and maybe its made more interesting later with Pauls mellotron part and Georges Indian zither and the fact that George Martin has spliced together two different versions into one.

So someone complains my idea was this but now its turned into that. But if the idea is strong enough you should be able tobuild on it and still sense it under all of the 'that'. Good photographs are built on a strong concept and or design so that no matter what is added the origins are evident.

The problem comes from simply copying a page, so what was the idea behind this page. If you knew that how do you not know that you would do something different. Of course photographers look at magazines to 'see whats going on' but better photography comes from photographing the idea of whats going on. That way youre whats going wont be like everyone elses.


Wether its John singing and playing along on acoustic or the Beatles playing on record
Its Strawberryfields Forever

IN A FIX?.....CALL HARRY HOUDINI

It happens in photography,( David Bailey and Donovan once discussed over lunch how there were literally hundreds of things that could go wrong in photographing fashion) so now youre in a fix, cornered, the location didnt work out, its raining and doesnt look as though its going to stop, youve forgotten a piece of equipment etc etc.

So what do you do? you do what you planned to do if any of these things happen just like Harry Houdini the famous escapologist

Houdini once boasted he could get out of a jail cell that was securely locked. But he had to inspect it first. When he went he took a selection of picklocks with him, (Harry had already tested nearly every lock on the market and made picks for them) as he seemed to be testing the strength of the bars and pretending to see if he could sqeeze through he was really deciding on which pick would pick which lock. He stretched out on the bed to see how hard it was for his 'stay' and at the same time hid a selection of picks as he checked the mattress etc. When he returned he was meticulously shaken down to see if he was bringing anything in but there was nothing, because it was already there. The guard had hardly sat down to read the paper when the phone rang. "Houdini calling". He was out!!!! and there it was the empty cell.

It just illustrates the point by planning ahead and preparing for location changes etc etc You can get out of most fixes just like Harry. Bert Stern had the attitude,'if it cant be done here where can it be done'
Because he'd thought of that beforehand he probably knew the answer.