Can accidents be creative?

[erl]

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I misloaded my Leica 111f and pulled the end cap off the film cassette when trying to remove the film. End result, I thought, was exposure of some of the raw film. I cut the jammed leader off and reshaped it and reloaded.

Upon developing the subsequently exposed film I noticed that light had penetrated some distance via the sprocket holes, but by and large the film was almost unaffected. However, I had failed to notice that the reason for the original jam up was caused by a torn leader, the torn portion of which had lodged in the film gate. It acted like a mask over the entire film without my knowledge. Subsequently, I had to use the tweezers from my Swiss Army Knife to extract the torn film.

Now for the resultant images. Yes, they are an accident, but can any creativity be found in any of them? I present here several of them.

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[erl]

and a couple more.

1. Hiding dog peeps through sprocket holes.

2.The axe falls on chopped wood.

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[adan]

Of course!

It takes exactly the same creative mental training and habits of mind to recognize a "creative mistake" as it does to recognize a creative photograph.

Anyone who has any chance of becoming an effective photographer will - after perhaps the first reaction of "DOH!! 🤬 " - look at the photo again with an unbiased eye, to see with what gem serendipity and the happy accident may have just blessed them.

Chance favors the prepared mind. - Louis Pasteur.

The Genius: artist at work - with accidental flare. M10, 90mm Elmarit-M

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Edited December 16, 2024 by adan

[adan]

I find the first and third the most compelling.

The first as a "symbolic summation" of the act and art of landscape photography, and the third for its sense of surreal mystery, somewhat akin to Josef Koudelka's Parc de Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, 1987.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/classic-photographs/parc-de-sceaux-hauts-de-seine-france

Edited December 16, 2024 by adan