Have you ever thought of the most important moment in human history was? Or maybe the most significant discovery in human history? What would you say it was? Fire? Agriculture? THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA?!?!?.... But in all seriousness, lets talk about communication. But even more in depth, the role communication has in a community. Think about what makes someone who they are, they identify with a culture more than anything else. And you wouldn’t have a culture if you didn’t have a community established, and you wouldn’t have a community established unless you had common communication set between people. The communication is how you established the norms, and ideas set within the community. Think about the history and lessons that were so lucky to have because of this discovery. Through communication we got story telling, or vice versa. In its voyage through out history we see how story telling established set rules and norm. Using language and the art of using it as a outlet for telling stories, it created what communities are founded on. In its earliest stages this of connection had limitations of its structure, these days? Twitter and instagram have more of a domination in the writing, and communication market than any other medium. But back to the important thing, story telling. In general its something any one and every one can do, and personally I believe it’s the most important thing we’ve ever done.
Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a story teller. I often remember creating stories in my head and how much I’d rather spend time in my imagination rather than pay attention to what was in my reality. Chalk it up to being naïve or even ignorant, but I never really took the idea of becoming a “writer” or a “creator” as a serious profession. If I enjoyed it so much and did it often then it wasn’t technically “work”, right? Yeah I used to think like that. A little sad, but I always thought work meant struggling to get something done, and that’s how I perceived what my future occupation should be. But I guess thats why I can find my self on my current path and journey in life today. So with this new direction and path in life I knew I wanted to document it somehow. Already thinking of ideas about some kind of photo and video series, I figured it was time do take the jump and do something I always wanted to do but never felt “smart enough” to accomplish. It was after all here in college where I picked up a camera, where I learned the notions behind capturing emotions. Where a story can be told with a look, or a gesture, during an instinct, a fracture of time, captured perfectly. That divisive moment that Henri Cartier Bresson talks about, that small sliver in time where a moment has so much meaning, detail and power that an entire story is played out in front of you. This ability we have as humans really shouldn’t be considered but anything less than the most important obligation we have. Its simple, a actions may speak louder than words but words can silence an action.
Let’s break it down. I also wanted to be a writer. But what kind of writer? I knew my favorite type of writing was the introspective, intrapersonal, life relating stories, I guess something that compelling yet easy and relatable. Now, I have been writing personally my whole life, and yes I was that “pretentious-annoying-Emo-poetry-writer” in high school, but it wasn’t until college where I found my written voice. Being obsessed with F Scott Fitzgerald, I learned the importance of a word. My favorite book is the Great Gatsby and every single word in the book is necessary. Every sentence is perfect, and it to me just encapsulates how important the idea behind a motive can be through elegant description and purpose. Now add that to Charles Bukowskis simplistic free form approach to questioning and documenting life and its true meanings, with the greatest writer of all time, David Foster Wallaces unbelievably personal yet resembling and relatable point of view which was often ironic or self debilitating or telling, and I’d hope you’d get me. Whether or not I’m successful at this, all I want to do with this blog and these posts is maybe share some personal first person insight and intelligence on the reasons why someone does what they do. But where do I go to release my wok? It is even important work? Why would I or really anyone think their ideas are important enough for someone to spend their time investing in your words? Well, I mean you’re here right? So this blog must have some kind of importance, and I hope you know that I am truly, truly grateful for any/all of you. But “written word form” is a product, people often need products, products are costly… you want people to receive your product? Give it to them for free. And that’s exactly what I am doing, not only on here but I recently been given the position as a contributing writer for the online journey “The Grey Journal”. I have already been published on their website along with Apple news as the “new feature” and am currently writing my next two articles with them. Kinda feel like a humble brag or this may not sound all prestigious but like many other things in my life this is just the start and is something that I have always wanted and am extremely proud of. If this is of any interest there will hopefully be another blog post about my endeavors in writing and a self funded and indy distributed work coming soon!
But is writing the only form of story telling? Let’s go back to photography for a second. We’ve all heard “Every photo is 1,000 words”, and the better lesser known, “every frame a painting.” Now as a photographer I know that’s my job to accomplish the task of artistically capturing moments in life that represent/show/express/encapsulate more with one frame than one could with an entire page. Make a visual visceral connection without having to explain without details. That’s the difference between the written word and the exposed negative. But what about a medium that has 24 frames per second? I don’t have many pinpointed goals in life, but I know I want to make a documentary at some point, and I was recently lucky enough to given an opportunity to shoot and work with an amazing team on a documentary that deals with a subject that hits very close to home for me. This documentary is taking on the responsibility of showing the world the love and pride of the LGBT community. The documentary will be covering the Official world pride parade as it comes to America for the first time, and its importance as it takes place on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn raids. Although I personally do not identify exactly as part of the community, the LGBT community has been unbelievably accepting and loving towards me and everyone I’ve seen them deal with. To bring it back to story telling, I’ve learned so much about these people, their struggles and their goals. I’m so blessed and grateful getting to sit across from them and hear their stories, some of them are powerful and courageous and some of them are heartbreaking and soul identifying. This is the representation of the importance of story telling. Through communication I get to experience these peoples lives and learn and grow from them, and its my job to capture it 24 frames per second. I go into my shoots on this doc with the same approach I go into a photography shoot, I have a mantra and I repeat it over and over again, “Where is the story? Where is the story”? And its no different on the documentary. The story is whatever the person is going to talk about, so how can I encapsulate that? How can I capture them in their community, in their world? What on frame adds to their words. And then it all breaks down, one image at a time. One image, one story. I think of it as a photo, the image should embrace what they say by representing their words. That’s my role in this history, pass the knowledge along, spread the community, teach those that are not aware.
All in all, whether its through pen and paper, or camera and screen my purpose in life is to communicate and connect with people. To be open, transparent and accepting, this to me is the only way to see clearly and speak truthfully. And as I go down this journey I hope you follow me on social media to see how I do that with my camera, or read the words here as it’s the purpose of this blog. I just want to share and be open about my self and issues but make it somehow relatable to everyone with precision, concision, and understandable detail. Or read my articles that will come out on the Grey Journal. My becoming a contributing writer is something that I am immensely proud of and cant thank the guys and my editor David for accepting my submissions and taking me on as part of the team, linked below is the article link to their publication site. To be credited as a Director of Photography in a feature documentary is still something that blows my mind. But as cool as it is, being a part of someone else’s story and be a part of the way of playing a role in the community story and the telling and sharing/teaching aspect of it, is the absolute best and most rewarding part. Linked below as well is the website of the documentary and the social media account where you can read more about our goals and contribute/donate to the funds and cause.
So with that I hope you continue to follow my journey on here in my own words, or see what I’m doing with my camera through social media, or follow my contributions of the Grey Journal! All in all, I truly just hope that I can connect with you and hopefully together through this communication we can learn, grow, spread and great a great little community.
https://discovergrey.com/work/work-tech/richard-browning-the-man-defying-gravity/