The more I study and practice photography, the more I've become convinced about the importance of spending some time with other arts. Painting is probably the most influential medium on photography. Instead of capturing light, they create it. No one was better at it than the Dutch and Flemish masters, and I love popping into museums to spend some time with their creations. But, painting isn't the only art that can influence and inspire photographers. Pretty much any form of visual art can inspire us. I've become convinced that continually taking time to spend looking at and studying other artistic creations besides photographs will do nothing but benefit me in the long run.
I've also become convinced about the importance of using music in photography. Huh? No, I don't mean setting a slideshow to music or music paired with a time lapse video. I mean including music in my process of shooting and editing.
We all have probably experienced the power an old song from our past has to conjure memories and conversations, even tastes and smells. When I was around 7 or 8 I was taking figure skating lessons at the Kent State ice rink and going there almost every day to skate. They had the radio playing in the rink and Two Princes by the Spin Doctors would come on at least twice every time I was there. To this day, when I hear that song I'll be transported back to skating on the ice. I can remember what it smelled like, I can feel the ice under my skates. It's a pretty cool phenomenon. About a year ago I was reading a travel memoir and the author mentioned a technique with music that he used to preserve memories of his travels. He said he would pick an album and listen to it over and over while he was traveling somewhere (this was back in the day of cassette tapes). When he came home he'd put the tape away and wouldn't listen to it for years. Then, when he would finally pull it out of the drawer and play it, it worked like a time machine, transporting him right back to where he was when he last heard those songs. I thought this was a pretty great idea, and have since started doing it too.
Instead of buying an entire album, I'll make a playlist. I keep it short, up to 15 tracks, just like the length of an album. That way we'll get through the list several times over on the trip. The more we listen to the playlist, the better it works. So, I usually do this if we're going to be on a train or in the car for a long period of time while we're traveling. It's all we listen to on the trip and we listen to it in the same order the whole time. Then, when we get home, I file it away and don't listen to it for a while. That's very important to the process. The only time I allow myself to listen to the music is right after, while I'm editing my photos from the trip. Besides that, I wait a year before I start listening to the playlist or specific songs from it again.
I have a few rules when I'm looking for a music to add to the list. First of all, it has to be from an artist or band that comes from the country we're traveling too. Even in this age of mainstream music which tends to be sung in English a lot of the time, each country's sound is a little different. Sometimes that comes from the instruments and sometimes that comes from the voices. Music comes from the heart of the artist who writes it, and I think where they come from is a major influence on what is in their hearts. Themes and chords resonate from that place.
Secondly, most of the music has to be new, or at the very least, new to me. I don't just compile a list from stuff I already own. And, I try to avoid music that was popular from growing up. I don't want to know the words already or have any sort of memories already attached to them. I want current sound so the music will take me not just to a place, but also a time. Occasionally, I'll make exceptions, but for the most part I choose tunes from up and coming groups not known well outside their nation, or ones relatively new to the popular global scene. Sometimes I'll include a popular song either because I really like it or it fits well with the rest of them.
Thirdly, I have to like the music. Duh. These songs have to be ones I'll want to pepper into future playlists, songs I actually want to hear again. Sometimes that makes it kinda difficult, if popular music from a country doesn't fit my tastes. One or two trad songs on the list are ok, but they have to have the right sound or be very short in length to make the cut.
A little under a year ago, we were driving through Norway. The playlist from that trip is probably my favorite of all of those I've made. I've become fans of several artists and bands that I discovered by creating the list. You can listen to what I came up with below. One exception I made for this one was including the song by Fever Ray. She's Swedish, but it's the theme from the Vikings TV show, and therefore just had to be on there. There are a couple of other differences between my original list and the one below. It's missing Good Mistake by Mr Little Jeans and instead of Someone Who'll Get It it had the Heavenly Father single by Highasakite. The two missing songs aren't on Spotify, but they are on iTunes. Highasakite's cover of Heavenly Father is, in my opinion, far more stirring than the Bon Iver original, so definitely give it a listen.
Through the use of the music, I'm able to access areas of subconscious that store deeper memories and feelings from being in that space. I use it while editing my photos so I can remember the feel I had while taking them, and the feel I want to create in the final image. If I decide to go back and re-edit older shots from the original RAW files, that playlist comes on over the speakers again. It's far more effective than rereading my journals or looking back at the photographs themselves. As soon as I flick on that playlist I can feel the wind, I can recall the smells, the light, and the tastes. I can remember moments of swinging around turns in the mountains, the sensation of the car leaning into the corner, the release of g-force after the apex of the turn, and the shock of an immense landscape revealing itself. Suddenly I can recall the tastes and textures of the food, and ambient sounds in the air. Basically, I'm back there again. It's amazing how our brains work, isn't it?
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