Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen. – Robert Bresson

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I took a screenwriting class during the 97-98 academic year, one elective toward the four I needed to finally get my undergraduate degree. I had written a screenplay that had been received favorably by my instructor, Dr. Joel Sternberg.

So of course this positive feedback meant the script would undoubtably sell in Hollywood. I registered my script, then set out to figure out who would have the honor of buying it. While cruising the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) web site (because obviously, I’d need to be a member), I came across a page of “In Their Own Words” by famous movie types. I wish I could link to it, but I had no luck finding any sign it still exists.

The list had several clever quotes that stuck with me for some time, but only the Bresson quote stuck with me for what’s turning out to be more than 18 years. Bresson was a unique French screenwriter and director, and I had never heard of him. But I was fascinated by the idea of producing some measure of work–at the time, a screenplay–that was like none before it.

I’ve still got that screenplay. Luck of circumstance means it’s actually within arm’s reach. I haven’t re-read it in years, but I suspect it really wouldn’t stand the test of time, or remotely answer Bresson’s challenge. There’s no…signature to it.

Photography is no different. It’s just as easy to recognize an Alfred Hitchcock film as it is to recognize an Ansel Adams landscape or an Annie Leibovitz portrait.

I’m not sure what my wrap up is to this post; the punchline, the payoff, the big reveal. It’s anticlimactic to “end” with the observation that I’ll never have the signature of an Adams or Leibovitz (or Hitchcock).

But…every once in a while…hiding among the routine, I capture something that grabs me. At this point, I don’t even bother trying to define why or how. If I’m lucky, and sometimes I am, it grabs others too. And that is more important to me than trying to figure out my signature move. I’m happy to be the portrait/black and white/landscape/pet/still life/baby/sunset photo guy.

Until next time.