Talent

View, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Garden, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Trees, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Treetops, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Blur, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Birches, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Alan Briot posted at Luminous Landscape an interesting article titled Rethinking Talent, in which he wrote: "For me, if there is such a thing as talent, it is the ability to make the best use of your time, when doing something you deeply care about, by engaging in regular practice, study and dedication. Talent is also seeking help from people who are where you want to be, because the experience of someone who is more experienced than you is one of the most valuable assets you can find. Finally, talent is not giving up when faced with difficulties. Talent, in other words, is the ability to focus, work hard, seek guidance and not give up."

Somewhat different view to talent is provided by the story of a nanny, Vivian Maier, who took 100,000 photographs, never showed them to others, and was discovered after her death to be a world-class street photographer. A view on her photographs is found at the "B" blog by Blake Andrews. Wikipedia has the fundamentals of her story.

Of what I have seen of Maier's photographs, there are a handful images which really make an impression. First-rate work. However, not all images picked by the current owner of her work, John Maloof, are of such a high quality, at least in web-sized images. But Maloof has apparently gone through only a part of the vast body of work, so there is a lot to anticipate. However, I suspect that someone else would have made different choices on what photographs to show to the public.

In any case, what does Maier's story tell of talent? Well, at least that there is a lot of talent in the world which has not been discovered, maybe even photographers who are not personally aware of their talent.