One more thing that doesn’t work

When I moved to West Orange, New Jersey I became a neighbor of Thomas Edison.

Here are a few Gigapans I made of his home and grave:

His body rests in the back yard of his mansion, now a National Park, just a few blocks from my home and studio.  His laboratory is also part of that museum and also nearby.  I have learned about Mr. Edison and how he worked and became the most important inventor of the 20th century – and perhaps of all time.

He liked to say that when an experiment failed he succeeded because he learned one more thing which did not work.

There was a similar thought in the NY Times: “The Power of Failure” recently by Sarika Bansal.  Sometimes the only way to move ahead is to make mistakes, learn from them and keep on working. This is also how it goes for me when making photograms in the darkroom.  I try something and see if it works, and then I learn from it and try again.  The rapid pace of creating and seeing the image allows me to refine and learn and keep on working to evolve the work.  I sometimes find it hard to get started on a new project because of a fear of failure.  But the truth is that the failure is part of succeeding.  And it feels mighty good when you proceed from failure to success.

Edison also said that “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”