Being an Artist

Being an artist; doing your art...

My best shots are taken when I was all by myself, when I was crawling within my head-full thoughts.

Now, I'm photographing this guy. While he is playing his clarinet, I only notice one thing. He is not in the hall but somewhere else - probably following his heart. I can see through his eyes that his mind is in another state and his only connection to the reality is the sound of his clarinet which he barely hears to. 

The inspiration is hidden in our surroundings; I agree with that. But the inspiration can only be processed by selfless perceptions... perceptions that occur, not planned.

You may say that loneliness is the common illness of artists. Artists retreat frequently, but they never are left alone. There is this nuance: people mix loneliness with being alone. In reality it means being all by oneself at a sort period of time. The art requires an absolute nirvana; or in other words it requires being able to evaluete every experience - negative or positive - with appreciation. Basically while inspiration requires input, art requires no interference from outer world.

Loneliness.., you may still say but being able to concentrate on the inspiring emotions, to me, is the only virtue that this ordinary clarinet player has. He is on the stage; he is under lights, he is playing and singing... Tell me anything but not "he is alone". He is playing beautifully; but his art is not born yet. Who knows what he composes; or maybe he is doing something else; for example whispering a poem..

• Photographer

  Can Berkol

• Location

  Türkiye, İstanbul, Ortaköy

• Assignments & Events

  Not Available

• Models

  Not Available

• Styles

  Art & Culture, Black & White, Event Photography, Portraits

• Tags

  instrument, man, music, musician

• Equipment

  Canon 5D Mark II
  Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

• Shooting Specs.

  Date Published: August 12, 2010
  Date Taken: June 07, 2010
  Aperture: f/2.8
  Shutter Speed: 1/20
  ISO: 320
  Focal Length: 200 mm
  

• Post-Processing

  Crop applied. Sharpness slightly increased

• Notes

  Dark concert hall; classical compositons are performed... You need to be careful because the clicks of your shutter are loud enough and they may distract the artists. The best thing is to stay far as much as you can; have a tripod an external/wireless shutter release, a greate camera that supports high ISO settings and quality lens with f/2.8 or with a lower numeric value.