Photographic Project

[Chemophilic]

Just want to see how, or if you guys do it. By photography projects I am referring to portfolio, folio, or picture essay around a specific theme. I have been trying to get two projects started, one on hands and the other on an old district in Hong Kong. However I find it hard to organize or to keep motivated at times. Just out of curiosity...

1. Do you find shooting for a project helpful for you?
2. How do you get started/organize/keep motivated?

I would love to see your examples and thanks for your feedback! 🙂

 

[Keith]

I'm currently photographing for a project based around fifteen students publically creating a computer gaming program in six weeks under media attention. It's basically a photographic essay and I have to admit that at times it's been very hard work and maintaining momentum has been a conscious effort. I generally go in and spend close to a full day twice a week photographing the students and trying to capture the various stages that they themeselves are going through. Often they're very stressed and weary and one day last week were not co-operative at all and I sensed they were not pleased to see me. There is also the occasional spat between the programmers and artists ... designers and programmers etc etc.

Also because I've chosen to shoot it in black and white film there is a lot of work to do when I get home ... currently with about a week and a half to go I have around six hundred images scanned and sorted into their appropriate days and stages and keeping track of it all has been intense to say the least. Selecting fifty or so at the end of the project just may turn out to be the hardest part yet.

Interestingly it has photographically saturated me totally and I find myself virtually unable to pick up a camera and shoot for myself at the moment between visits to the college. The lesson in the amount of discipline it takes to do this type of thing has been invaluable to me though!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I have several long term projects going and several others completed. Most of my projects feed off each other. I'll be working on a project and photograph something as part of that, and that something I photograph becomes the basis for a new project. For example, while working on my my Forgotten Indiana project I took some photos in Waynedale, an area of the city I live in that used to be a small town before being annexed by the larger city. Waynedale still looks like a small town, and I photographed some things there for my Forgotten Indiana project. Eventually I had done so many photos in Waynedale, that I decided to make it a separate project. The Prairie Grove Cemetery Chapel is in Waynedale, and over the years I made so many photos of that one place that it too became a separate project. All three projects are still in progress, I am still making new photos for all of them.