This post is inspired by the eBook The Vision-Driven Photographer by David duChemin. This post is also inspired by a documentation about the monk Martin Luther and his influence on the Germans that was broadcasted in the german televison two years ago. What is the correlation of both? – I will give it a try to formulate what holds David and Martin together in my mind.

Martin Luther could not be quiet to circumstances the clerus was responsible for. He was fought and he put his life on the line to tell the world that in the relationship between God and one single person no institution ever should or could play a role. Luther wanted the mind to be free. He wanted people to be good informed and to judge autonomic. This dates back for nearly 500 years now and we still are struggling to build, sustain und evolve democracy.

Now, what to do when you – thanks to Luther and a lot of others – are free from constraint? What to do when you are and feel responsible and you do not like to be a part of an unaccountable mass? What to do when you are an individuum willing to be a emancipated person and a part of a human collective? You should perceive, sence, think about, digg deeper, …, judge, plan, act and be reflective.

David duChemin is a photographer and a teacher for photographers and he reminds us in his books to intentionally create photographs that are expressing in the clearest way what we want to say. This expression – and this is my thought – is a necessity when we want to be an emancipated person and want to shape our life and our society. David duChemin reminds us that writers, painters, musicians … express their feelings and thoughts with other languages and other tools but the process is the same. Like photographers – and let me add – all other emancipated persons – they have to figure out how they percieve the world they live in, they have to figure out what they want to tell the other individuums they want to reach and have to figure out how to successfully communicate.

David duChemins topic is personal and photographic vision: “We all have vision, the question is: are we aware of it? Personal Vision is how we see life whether or not our eyes are open. It grows, it changes, it flip flops depending on where life takes us and that makes it the challenge it is. You think you understand it, catch more than a fleeting glimpse, and maybe you do for a while, but one day you wake up and it’s changed for some reason and you have to rediscover it all over again” (p3). “It’s an endless journey” (p23, David duChemin: The Vision-Driven Photographer).

If you do want to create rich in content photographs, poems, songs … I think it´s worth to have a look into the eBook The Vision-Driven Photographer.

If you use the promotional code DRIVEN4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of The Vision Driven Photographer for only $4 OR use the code DRIVEN20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST November 28th, 2010.

spray-painting © by Eli Reinholdtsen

Today and want to introduce Eli Reinholdtsen a photographer-friend of mine living in Oslo, Norway. I met Eli in Genua when she was arriving for the second week of the Italy Within The Frame Workshop in April 2010 and I was leaving after the first week. Eli I first met virtually on facebook as a result of Jeffrey Capman´s building up a workshop community. Eli posted this photograph (above) to introduce herself into the community and I was very impressed. I like this photograph very much! Eli has been an avid snapper ever since she was given her first camera at the age of eleven but discovered the infinite potential of creative camera modes about two years ago. Like to be seen she did the discovery very fast.

Eli and I – and other participants too – had a glass of wine and I had a very good conversation with Eli that avoce my wish to stay in touch with her. Later on within her workshop week she put a self-published book called “Folk” into David duChemin´s hands at the breakfast table and as a result of this introduction this ebook (beneath) was released by Craft And Vision on July 28th.

Very well done Eli! I am very impressed by the photographs in this ebook. The photographs have multiple layers inside combining at least two images in one, leaving question marks and stimulate curiosity. Its a joy to see the full size photographs on the first half of the book and the smaller sized versions with comments on the back half give very good explanation and education. Eli loves what she is photographing! She loves street photography, she loves reflections and is drawn to when people are wrapped up in their own thoughts. Her photographs make me smile but the photographs are the result of hard working: Comming back to see whether the light is better, waiting for an hour ore more to catch the moment, trying to create a better photograph in the same setting but another moment, not giving up when she could not capture the image she wanted to create. Chasing Reflections – a wonderful art piece and photography education at the same time! Highly recommended!

Buy at the webshop of Craft And Vision

For the first four days only you can enter the promotional code REFLECT4 to save 1 $ (will expire at 11.59pm PST August 1, 2010).