After reading the interview with Joachim Schmid who “gathers” other peoples images and has made numerous collections of subjects, such as hands, feet, etc, etc. Rather than go into Schmids methods in to much detail, the one comment that will perhaps stay with me was this one, “an artists life requires stamina” and a “bit of good luck”. Understated to say the least, but one that gives us all hope (perhaps) and also literates the fact that if this were easy we would all be doing it. Relating this to photography it echoes some thoughts I recently encountered from David Yarrow in that creativity requires “spadework”, a hypothesis that this is not all about pushing the shutter, it is putting yourself into that void where you can be creative, encouraging the use of the essential skills that have been mastered. Its also true that we all take these monotonous photographs of an smiling, idealistic family with the background of photography, but that tells us more about us as human beings than about creating great photography. These are about memories, being able to look back and pass on this things that we did together. They hold no further relevance, perhaps unless a skilled photographer is behind the lens, interested enough to take this cliche and make it slightly more appealing. But I fear this is rarely the case. This type of image is not what excites most photographers, but certainly ignites passion, happiness and validity amongst the masses. I find myself less and less likely to shoot this form of imagery when I am “out and about” as they say, and I think in terms of progression this is certainly likely to worsen. That being said I feel Schmids work is of utter importance, and a truly genius idea. Perhaps without his “gathering” and accumulative research, I would not be able to relate to my own feelings regarding this type of reminiscent photography.