Arno Rafael Minkkinen

7. CREATE CONTINUITY

Here is a group of images taken in Finland over four decades. The math is simple: 1973 + 12 years = 1985 + 13 years = 1998 + 11 years = 2009. Or, I was 28 in 1973, 64 in 2009: same guy, same body—different birch trees, different bodies of water.

9. EMBRACE MYSTERY

Only the camera knows what happened. You will not find out until you see the negative and make the positive. In good pictures, the mystery will still be a mystery.

10. ACCEPT FAILURE

Artists who believe they control everything control what they know. Artists who allow outside forces to intervene are like canoes going down rapids. The rocks are there. If you fight them, you fly off the bow. If you allow the current to take you, you can pass through swimmingly. It is a rare gift at every bend.