series instead of standalones

SimonSawSunlight

SimonSawSunlight

Simon Fabel
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I enjoy working in blocks of series recently, usually rather spontaneously than planned like a complete reportage. it can be story-telling or just accumulating graphical or semantic ideas.
the strengths and focus of each individual picture change so much if it does not stand or have to stand on its own. it also offers different ways to convey the 'bigger picture' of a subject.

here's a few examples.
http://simonsawstreet.blogspot.com/2010/08/istaf-2010-6-von-simonsawsunlight-bei.html

http://simonsawstreet.blogspot.com/2010/08/family-night.html

http://simonsawstreet.blogspot.com/2010/08/berlin-kreuzberg-hands-feet.html

what do you think?
feel free to post yours :)

and an older one. http://simonsawstreet.blogspot.com/2010/07/ballet.html
 
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Simon, it's funny you should say that - when I scanned the photos I didn't think they were worthy of any extra attention by themselves - it was only as a group that I found they were worthy of posting. I actually get that quite a lot - all the pictures were off the same roll of neopan 1600. Sometimes whole rolls of film have that inter-connection for me, but the images are not impressive on their own.

I would describe your numerous series in the same way - a common feel between the single frames that's sometimes hard to put a finger on. I think it's also why I like photo-books so much - they work off the same principal.
 
I wouldn't say the photos have no individual merit, they do, some more than others.
but yes, it really is the collective that makes for their vibrance here.

in some series I think I have a clear 'topic', a little story being told, and in others it's like you said, they come off one single roll (or one day/afternoon/night of shooting) and they just belong to each other.
 
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SimonSawSunlight said:
what do you think?
feel free to post yours :)
Click to expand...

You are responsible for some of my "series" thinking, particularly the figurative symmetry thread. Getting a little collection. Thought about trying to focus on Dynamics as a concept as well. Then there's the Noir look also in a W/NW film noir thread.

Reminds me, the "W/NW xxx" threads get me thinking in series, with an eye for doors, or mannequins, etc...

fdigital said:
Here's a recent of mine - I really like series instead of standalones as well.

http://electricrockinghorse.wordpre...ss-the-road-wearing-a-uniform-is-an-impostor/
Click to expand...

Nice, I especially like the last image.
 
I also get inspired in a series direction by some of the images cited in the Monday "Gallery pics for week ending" threads.

Several weeks ago, RayPA posted a great image of a person walking under a surveillance camera. I'd say I especially keep an eye out for the camera's now - be they in a bowtie or elsewhere :rolleyes:

982088783_vEaCX-L.jpg
 
I'm too accustomed to working with standalone images. It's a habit I built up working for this small cheap newspaper where I'd only get one image printed per story and had to summarize the whole thing in a single photo. Now I work for a paper where they encourage me to create series for slideshows and I find myself having trouble thinking that way again but I'm enjoying the relearning process.
 
SimonSawSunlight said:
I enjoy working in blocks of series recently, usually rather spontaneously than planned like a complete reportage. it can be story-telling or just accumulating graphical or semantic ideas.
the strengths and focus of each individual picture change so much if it does not stand or have to stand on its own. it also offers different ways to convey the 'bigger picture' of a subject.
Click to expand...

Just about everything I do is a series. While Simon's are done in one day, mine are usually several years from start to finish. Longest was 4 years, shortest was a month. My website is organized around series.

I believe it is the classic case of the total being greater than the sum of the parts. I hope the photos support each other, thus bringing the overall quality upward.

It took a good friend and mentor several years to convince me of the merit of working on a series. Here is his work which is a series going on 18 years. http://www.ricklangphoto.com/portfolio.html (I know his website says 14 years but he has not updated since 2006)
 
Simon, I think your stuff is awesome! like, everything! :D



I did a mini-coverage of the band I was in at Musicfest earlier this year. It's sorta story telling- not exactly complete, but a good depiction of what it was like for me, in the band.
I would want to keep this in series because some of the pictures just don't make sense by themselves- the last one for example.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50557030@N02/sets/72157624145515551/show/

cheers.
 
Great shots Simon. I don't really have anything to contribute myself here but I'd like to recommend one of my longtime favorite photographers, Oxana Goutnik: http://shadowtones.net/ - most of her posts are 2-3 shots that somehow always seem to work together.
 
Good photographs as always Simon but, as usual, an even more interesting topic that you've bought up.

I often end up getting single images that may be unrelated at the time of shooting but a theme develops over time that these images appear to fit into. Sometimes this is subconscious; coming from the topics/subjects that continually interest me and at other times through a desire to tell some kind of story (perhaps story isn't quiet the right word.)

Your Night Family shots reminded me of a project I had to do at college based on documenting our families, I chose instead to document the lives of myself and the other guys I was living with at the time. Being able to show the inter relationships, mundanity, craziness of teenagers living alone and so on was great fun but also gave an interesting angle during the final exhibition with other students work.

Food for thought for me at a time when work isn't allowing me much time to shoot personal stuff and when I do get the time I'm too unfocused to achieve much...time for a series perhaps!

PS - see you in London!
 
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