That Michael Jang video is staying with me. I like that what he’s saying is so basic. It has nothing to do with photographic technique; there’s no talk of composition or exposure, much less what kind of camera you use. It’s just, get yourself in the right position and the rest will follow. That is some solid advice.
I’d like to speak about the camera for a second though. I think once you get to the spot where you need to be, the camera’s only job is to get out of your way. The camera you use is important, of course, but only to the extent that you are able or unable to develop a relationship with it, so it becomes an extension of yourself.
Of course this doesn’t mean “shoot with a compact camera,” Stephen Shore is just one example of someone who developed a relationship with an unwieldy camera.
Incidentally I would say Peter Funch is someone who has developed a relationship with a piece of software. I mean this in an objective and uncritical way. That said… in my personal life I would rather be outside than inside. Just sayin!
one thing you never mention, the thing that attracts me to photography, is chance. getting into the “right” position, if it means becoming receptive to what happens, is one thing. but if it means there is a right position to capture what is there, to commune with reality or art, this would seem antithetical to a realistic theory of photographing. the photos you post and the ones you take seem much more to emphasize chance arrangements than a “right” position. and isn’t the “right” position recognized only after the fact, when you see something in the photo that you didn’t necessarily see in the actual scene. this kind of post-hoc assertion seems problematic to me. also, although i sometimes ask myself why you focus—pardon the bad pun—so much on equipment, the other extreme seems more problematic — to make the apparatus disappear. this is the tendency of photograpy — benjamin identifies it. if the camera tends to “get out of the way”, become invisible , isn’t it the job of a theory of photography to make it visible, even also the job of a critical photography. what i love about your shots is that, seeming like snapshots, apparantly offhand, they do not seek to hide the photographed-character of the final image.