In the documentary I said something totally dumb along the lines of, “Your photos are your seeds.”
They had asked about my favorite photos that I had shot and I was trying to swerve the question by saying they are all my favorites, like they are my children or something. Embarrassing metaphor that now lives on the internet forever.
In my defense it was probably 8am and I was crazy nervous and there was no prep questions or any time to sort my thoughts.
I’m thinking of this now because a quote popped up recently.
“Don’t judge the day on the harvest, but on the seeds you planted.”
I don’t know who said it or remember where I heard it. Too lazy to look it up.
Ok, just looked it up. Robert Louis Stevenson.
Trying to see if my seeds, our seeds, are our photos or something else? In today’s world, wouldn’t just content in general be the seeds?
A zine, a book, a podcast episode, a video, a blog post?
No, I think the photo IS the seed and then it sprouts into one of those other things.
We may not know what species the seed is until later, sometimes years later.
I’m just thinking out loud here.
What I do know is that if I’m not getting my seeds right, I feel weird.
I don’t shoot or make stuff every day but I am learning lately that I feel better when I do.
BUT, on the other side of the coin, I have gathered some of the most exotic seeds and planted them in the most beautiful soil and sunlight. Watered them with magic water from Merlin himself and yet no fruit was harvested.
I think this is point though. The fun part is the seeds. The harvest, schmarvest.
I went to Paris once with my brother and our friend Monkey. We met a French girl and had a picnic with her.
First we went for some groceries. We learned about wine and cheese and sausage. “Saucisse” means sausage and “saucisson” means dry sausage. Like a salami.
We posted up by a river. “Saucisson c’est la vie,” she said.
I asked her to explain and she continued, “Food is life, wine is life..”
In memory it was way more epic sounding in her accent and she was very attractive. She didn’t say it but I felt more, “Sharing is life, hanging out is life. Today is life.”
“Saucisson c’est la vie,” stuck with us for a while. I still say it sometimes.