Make it different, keep it the same

“Art is risk made visible” – Arno Rafael Minkkinen

My workshop at the Griffin Museum of Photography with Arno Rafael Minkkinen is ongoing. This has been one of the most challenging photography workshops I have ever attended. We have only had the workshop for four three hours’ sessions, I already feel the impact on my work from Arno’s teachings. After each of our sessions ends, I come away feeling overwhelmed by the knowledge Arno imparts on us and savoring the excitement I feel from being continually challenged by Arno to make improvement.

Arno has been an esteemed teacher for over 30 years. He has been going way above and beyond with his approach to teaching this workshop. His eagerness to impart knowledge is palpable. I feel moved by how much care he shows to our work. During each session we get valuable feedback from his spending lengthy amount of time reviewing our work. A few days after the class is over, we receive written feedback and more suggestions via email. It has been a joy to read his eloquent write ups of our work. Arno shows his wealth of knowledge about history of photography, technical skills and understanding of modern photography development. It is a lot of information to absorb, yet it ignites my hunger for more knowledge when he encourages to study from other photographers’ work and continue to broaden our understanding of the medium.

I appreciate Arno’s push to improve on our work. The title of the workshop is “the power of three”. He uses Jacques Henri Lartigue -- the boy with a camera, as an example to illustrate the importance of developing our own visual pathway and form a thread to tie our work together. It is easy to take images nowadays. Anything can be subjects, anything can be photographed, but how do you develop consistency in your work, showing there is one viewpoint behind a person without the work becoming formulaic? There lies the challenge. Yes, one can develop a consistency to the body of work through forming an aesthetic style, but that set style can run the risk of falling into the expected. We risk of losing rigor for further development when we become too comfortable in a well-worn path.

Here, Arno makes an astute observation- the tools we work with may undergo profound transformations, still the meaning of our vocation is derived from our imprint on other people.

With one of Arno’s most famous speeches, the Helsinki bus station, he dropped this nugget of wisdom, "Art is risk made visible.” The audience needs to see the risk we are willing to take to produce the art. It needs to reside in the work itself, not just in an artist's statement, what is said in some lecture, or in the words of an art critic. To take an artistic risk is to aspire to originality. We risk little if what we do has already been proven." But the price of being original is to take a creative risk, to walk away from the tried-and-true formula. We must challenge ourselves to bring a modern voice to a medium that is by now well formed. And I find this aspect of his teaching the most challenging during the time I have spent attending the workshop. During each session, we explain the intention behind our work, is there any consistency to the work? Are there ways to add to the mix to add excitement without the work giving the feeling of being repetitive, and at the same time it shows one voice?

As Arno says, “always different, always the same/ never predictable, but surprisingly familiar”. This will serve as a major challenge for my photography pursuit. I am grateful for Arno’s teaching which gives me much to ponder.