Photography is like Improv Comedy
I recently watched a show featuring Improv Comedy. It was hilarious and tickled my funny bone as well as my curiosity bone. How do they do that? So, I did a bit of research (ok, I queried ChatGPT) and harkened back to the late 90s when I did a course on Facilitation based mostly on the process of improvisational comedy.
As I delved into the topic, it occurred to me that the process of doing Improv Comedy is very much like (or can be) the process of doing photography, or any other form of art making. Improv is performance art, while photography is a visual art. Different right? But, in thinking about how I "make" photographs and how my artist friends (including my wife Dona) "make" art, I concluded that the making of any art is often an improvisation that forges the path of creating artwork. If so, how can Improv Comedy help us make photographs (and other artwork).
Improv Comedy is the process of creating humor spontaneously during a performance, in real time, rather than in a script prior to the performance. It's risky as there is no script to fall back on, but it can be lots of fun and very funny, mostly. So, how do they do that? In a nutshell, Improv Comedy is:
A collaboration in real-time between performers and/or the audience. Success depends on being open in the present moment, listening, feeling, collaborating, working with what is given to you to build the performance in real time, which requires the performers to always be open to what's given.
"Yes, and…" is the key to improv. Performers respond in in real time by accepting what the other performers, the audience or the situation provide, ("Yes,”) and then adding to it ("and…"). This creates the path that moves the performance forward. It's opposite "No, but…" blocks the path and slows forward movement.
Failure is part of the process, which the performers accept and move on. The possibility of failure should not stop the process. When a "joke" doesn't land, the performers don't dwell on in. They just move on. As Ted Lasso famously said, "Be a goldfish" with a ten second memory. The audience and performers will forget the one that didn't work when the next one does.
That seems very much like how I do photography. At least for me, the process of photography that I enjoy the most is one of creating images spontaneously as I move through a scene (or a set with subjects in my studio). Just as in Improv Comedy, the creative path (the performance) is made by my response in real-time to what I see, sense, feel, or imagine in the scene and then applying the Improv principle of "Yes, and…". This means always going with the flow, asking “I wonder...” or “what if…” and being actively curious about what’s around you. And never, ever saying "No, but…", which will kill the process and the joy the photographer experiences in that process.
Now, I know what you're thinking. When photographing, there are no other performers, audience or MC to whom we can respond and create the next piece of the performance. It's an individual sport. It’s just the photographer and the scene. How can there be the back-and-forth collaboration that is a hallmark of Improv?
In Improv Photography, the collaboration is between the photographer and the near infinite number of elements in the scene. As the photographer explores the scene (or a set with subjects), something will catch the photographer’s eye or create a feeling. The photographer then responds with "Yes, and.." by framing a composition, perhaps making an exposure, then moving on to explore what else there is, which might be fine-tuning the current composition or finding the next one. It's quick, spontaneous, lots of fun, and in my experience, the best way to make personally expressive images because they will be the result of the photographer’s personal response to the experience.
Like Improv Comedy, this process is not planned or scripted but created in the moment as the photographer collaborates with the scene. The photographer is not searching for a predetermined outcome but responding to what is received in the moment. It's a back and forth between what the scene offers (what "catches the photographer's eye”) and the photographer's response to that. The photographer has to be open to what is offered in the scene or what the photographer reacts to, then responding by always exploring the creative possibilities.
As in Improv Comedy, failure is part of Improv Photography. Many, if not most, of the images made will just be just OK, some will be worse. But those images are steps along the path to the ones that you will love the most. When an image doesn't quite work, be like a goldfish, forget and move on. Don't let fear of failure derail the process. When I’m making photos, I try to not overthink the process (and I'm an inveterate over thinker); I try to just respond and "shoot" (mostly). I do sometimes "cull" during the process by not pressing the shutter button, but I'd rather be deep in the flow of the process and "cull" later in the digital darkroom. I find that if I think and cull too much while photographing, the process gets bogged down, and I don't enjoy it as much.
Some more traditionally minded photographers may denigrate this as just committing the sin of "pray and spray", making lots of images and hoping that for one or two good ones. But "spray and pray", which lots of digital photographers are guilty of, is NOT an intentional process. It depends on random good luck. Improv Photography is (or should be) a very intentional process that depends on the photographer’s openness to the scene or subject, receiving whatever catches the eye and responding positively. Rather than following a pre-determined plan (script) and/or outcome, it uses the Improv process to make personally creative images in the moment.
