It's the most perfect thing to discuss as my first blog entry. If you look at the photograph by Lartigue of the fast moving vehicle, you will notice that the second half of the picture is out of focus. At the time this photograph was taken it was looked down upon to have any thing in the frame not be exact, let alone burry. However, Lartigue wasn't interested in what the rules were at the time. He didn't see mistakes as blemishes. He believed they added to the photograph, that these distortions were beautiful. Lartigue always tried to have a mistake in every picture.
As a former actor, I can remember a very specific time when I had spent weeks preparing for my first rehearsal with Neil Simon for his play on Broadway. I was so nervous that I planned every line reading, every beat. I didn't want to make one wrong move. So, I was very surprised to find out after our first reading how very upset Doc was (Neil Simon's nickname). "Why, what was wrong?" I asked him. "In the first act I didn't know what you were doing. It felt lifeless. The second act was great." He replied. The second act? The truth is that I had spent weeks and weeks overly preparing the first act and I actually had never even gotten to address the second act before the first reading. I just winged the second act. So..
I say, lean into the mistakes. Examine the flaws. Seek imperfection.
P.S. please check out Lartigue's photographs. He started when he was a kid and took pictures until his death:
http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Jacques-Henri-Lartigue.html
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