Single photos, small series or medium long term projects?

[JohnWolf]

I used to shoot only projects. As I've gotten older, and maybe with the pandemic, I've let go. I'm now content to simply walk, look, and shoot. No agenda. No philosophical or artistic aspiration. Nothing beyond what might make a satisfying photograph. Feels liberating, actually.

John

 

[jsrockit]

It seems that one needs to be a member of Instagram or Facebook to follow.

Yes, instagram...

 

[Calzone]

Robert,

It took me a decade after the housing crisis to realize that I shot obsessively both with film and digital NYC to capture "a sense of home" knowing that one day I would be forced out of NYC. Then Covid happened and I bought a house north of NYC in the burbs. Anyways some good things happened because of Covid besides buying a home, I also retired.

So I kinda did a Garry Winogran and shot film with no regard to printing. Boy did I annoy mucho people. I would argue that film like rebranded Tri-X and rebranded Acros for $1.89 a roll made shooting film more important than printing, but I guess I created a huge mess that might take a lifetime to organize. Then with digital I kinda went all into Piezography to annoy people with huge prints. I shot and processed about 150 rolls of film a month at one point sustained over one summer.

Right now I'm getting ready to start something crazy again. There are these houses that I see that have been made "Fugly" by attaching storefronts that pre-dates the notion of "work from home." Kinda ghetto, but I guess that is my style. Would make a nice book. BTW I kinda make fine art books, but so far the editions are of one. Anyways I seem drawn to decay, so I'm shooting suburban and rural decay when I see it.

Also here in the Lower Hudson Valley the light is kinda wonderful. I live in the same location where the Hudson School of Painting began. I can see doing some 8x10 shooting and contact printiing. The weather and light is rather moody, and there is a cool geography and military history to go along with my new hood.

So the shooting in NYC actually is an archive where much of the old New York was torn down and disappeared. I did not understand that eventually I would have a historical archive that somehow captured a NYC post housing crisis, but pre-Covid.

I'm not sure where my photography is going to go. I have a darkroom to build out, I have a digital studio to reassemble, and certainly I will be making my one-off books.

Anyways my retirement is kinda messy. I have a 1912 Baby-Victorian I'm restoring.

Certainly, whatever I do it will annoy some people. LOL.

Cal

 

[Retro-Grouch]

“Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?”

A single photo that distills the essence of a thought or concept down to its purest embodiment, or a series of photos that portray something, perhaps the same thing, gradually, piece by piece.
Both approaches have, what would seem to me, equal value. If I wanted to be a “better photographer”, it seems that it’s incumbent on me try to master both, as there is nothing inherently impossible about that, or even particularly difficult. Walk and chew gum. Don’t limit yourself, it won’t make you “better”. Don’t be satisfied with solving half the puzzle.
Getting your point across with a series is easier than with a single photo, however. As others have noted, if your single photo needs a caption, (as mine often do) it’s probably not good enough. Alternately, if in your series you can be accused of saying, “here’s another one of”, a la dad’s slideshows in years gone by, then it needs a cull.
Film and digital, do both. Color and Black and White, do both. Read a book, go to a movie, do both. It’s a world ripe with possibilities out there, avail yourself, don’t cramp yourself with the misguided notion that you “can’t”.

Larry always makes sense, even when he doesn't, and I'm sure he would be the first to argue that he doesn't. Which makes sense, doesn't it?

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Calzone, if you're annoying people, then you must be doing something right!
Your unintentional archive of "old" NY reminds me of Atget's relationship with old Paris. Despite Szarkowski's hagiography, I suspect that Atget (when he wasn't doing commercial work) was just wandering around, shooting what he loved, without too much of a conscious agenda. He just happened to create a towering monument to a vanishing world in the process. Maybe he would be amused and surprised by his (and his work's) present exalted status.
Oh, and he too created a huge mess that took a lifetime to organize. You're in good company!

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Larry always makes sense, even when he doesn't, and I'm sure he would be the first to argue that he doesn't. Which makes sense, doesn't it?

I resemble that remark!

 

[Calzone]

Calzone, if you're annoying people, then you must be doing something right!
Your unintentional archive of "old" NY reminds me of Atget's relationship with old Paris. Despite Szarkowski's hagiography, I suspect that Atget (when he wasn't doing commercial work) was just wandering around, shooting what he loved, without too much of a conscious agenda. He just happened to create a towering monument to a vanishing world in the process. Maybe he would be amused and surprised by his (and his work's) present exalted status.
Oh, and he too created a huge mess that took a lifetime to organize. You're in good company!

Kinda funny how I seem to have a talent for annoying people. I certainly have a huge mess on my hands.

BTW my big prints seem to annoy people too.

At PhotoPlusExpo, when the SL was just released I brought my Leica SL2-MOT that Sherry assembled from two cameras. One camera was a shelf queen that had a bad CdS cell and had a bad prism, but I found a donor SL2 that looked like it was a street fighter that was used as a deadly weapon. The camera was so beat up that it needed a new lens mount, but it had a perfect prism and a working meter. So Sherry made me a brand new camera.

So I go to the Leica booth and mention why would I buy a new SL when I have this brand new old one. I mentioned why couldn't Leica come up with a new name, and that they are lame.

So one of the guys wants to know what I do, so I excuse myself, saying I'll be right back. I go to the Canson booth and ask Robert Rodriguez, the Canson Artist in Residence, if I can borrow the print I gifted him to show it off at the Leica booth.

At the Leica booth my print using Piezography K7 print creates a bit of a sensation. The image is from the Williamsburg Bridge from the eastern casion in Brooklyn. I had to climb a railing and extend my arm to get the shot of the old Domino Sugar Refinery along the East River with Madhattan in the background.

This shot is impossible to get today: One thing is they erected a barrier so foolish people like me can't hang over that railing and fall to their death about 120 feet below to South 5th Street, and then again the old Sugar Refinery was mostly torn down and redeveloped so that wealthy hipsters could move in and be safe. When I lived on South 3rd Street the Sugar Refinery was operational and basically, it was like living next to a bomb factory as Sugar REfineries are known to explode at a level of a fuel-air bomb like the one known as "The Daisy Cutter."

One of the reps at the Leica booth is Richard Herzog, from Phase One, who is a large format shooter, and he asks me if the image was captured with a large format camera, and when I tell it was with a Leica MM with a 28 Cron version 1, he kinda flips out because he is a large format shooter. Also, he thought it was a wet print.

So I was just minding my own business... Like Larry said, "Let one picture..."

Another funny story is a group of us RFF'ers go shooting together wandering around NYC. One Sunday I have to go to Adorama for something, and when I walk in John and Pro-Mone are put off by the VIP treatment I get. Pretty much I get hijacked and shown all these camera treasures, and then John gets insulted and scolded "Don't touch that camera."

Then Christian says I should do a book called "The Crazies Of New York" because for some unknown reason crazy people come up to me and engage with me. I could be in a group of people, but I'm the one that gets singled out. Snarky Joe and I are on bicycles in a graveyard near Blissville, and this guy pulls up. He gets out of his car and starts telling me where all these Mafia henchmen are buried. I ask him how he knows all this, and he says his dad was in the Mafia. Meanwhile, Snarky Joe seems invisible...

So in response to why the crazies approach me, "It takes one to know one," I say. LOL.

All I can say is, "All I'm trying to do is mind my own business."

Cal

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Funny how the universe works... You annoy people (not deliberately, of course!), and the crazies annoy you. Karma!
And as far as the crazies go, just think of it as "access". Some photographers spend a lifetime struggling to achieve what falls into your lap without effort!

 

[robert blu]

This really is an excellent thread. Thank you Robert; it has made me think more about what I’m doing with my photography life. I’d like to call it my photography hobby but it seems to have taken on a larger part of my life than just a hobby.

Projects versus locations. Locations, locations, locations!

I think I fall in love with locations first and then they become my projects. It starts with a location - is it interesting? Then comes the light; gotta have some light. Add in some people, landscape, the ocean, a mountain, animals, trees, flowers, maybe a mix of all.

Yes, I would say that I’m a location guy more than a project guy. And, having said all that, I’m probably a nonsense guy to most of the other members who might be reading this. No problem; we are who we are.

All the best,
Mike

Locations, locations...yes do really understand you Mike. My photography as well is much related to locations, sometimes I find difficult to mix in a project pictures taken in different location even if they are valid fo the work itself.
I think it is related to the fact when many decades ago I started to make pictures it was or on weekends or on holidays trips. So most of time not at home but in a different location. Just an idea thinking about it !

 

[robert blu]

Over the years, I've pursued a variety of projects - series of images. So it would be series of series. One image leads to another. It's a point of view. A narrative. You keep trying to get it right. Practice.

I'm attracted to a point of view, regardless of subject matter. I look at what other people see. It's something that inspires, creates questions, looks for answers. I look at more imagery than I create, sometimes just for fun... https://www.flickr.com/photos/41670072@N07/


There is something about adding to a visual vocabulary that helps enunciate better ones own point of view. For the last dozen or so years I've been working with 250-300 year old records, pen and ink descriptions. And going to places mentioned and looking at them in contemporary light. An image may be worth a thousand words but a word can be worth a thousand images...

I liked the "Bretagne 2018" album in your Flickr Mathieu! but this is my personal taste! In many of your photos a sense of solitude, loneliness comes out. Oft people photographed from behind are not very interesting, but in your series there is somethiong which adds a kind of interest. It would be nice to know a little bit more about.

 

[robert blu]

“Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?”

A single photo that distills the essence of a thought or concept down to its purest embodiment, or a series of photos that portray something, perhaps the same thing, gradually, piece by piece.
Both approaches have, what would seem to me, equal value. If I wanted to be a “better photographer”, it seems that it’s incumbent on me try to master both, as there is nothing inherently impossible about that, or even particularly difficult. Walk and chew gum. Don’t limit yourself, it won’t make you “better”. Don’t be satisfied with solving half the puzzle.
Getting your point across with a series is easier than with a single photo, however. As others have noted, if your single photo needs a caption, (as mine often do) it’s probably not good enough. Alternately, if in your series you can be accused of saying, “here’s another one of”, a la dad’s slideshows in years gone by, then it needs a cull.
Film and digital, do both. Color and Black and White, do both. Read a book, go to a movie, do both. It’s a world ripe with possibilities out there, avail yourself, don’t cramp yourself with the misguided notion that you “can’t”.

I like your thinking Larry, you are correct: both approaches have equal value. And they are also interchangeable. You can have a batch of single pictures taken in different time and locations and going through them you find a recurrent theme which can bring to a finished project. Or a starting point for something new.

 

[robert blu]

I used to shoot only projects. As I've gotten older, and maybe with the pandemic, I've let go. I'm now content to simply walk, look, and shoot. No agenda. No philosophical or artistic aspiration. Nothing beyond what might make a satisfying photograph. Feels liberating, actually.

John

When it feels liberating is very good! Specially in these times...

 

[robert blu]

...Certainly, whatever I do it will annoy some people. LOL.

Cal

I hope so! LOL.

 

[mapgraphs]

I liked the "Bretagne 2018" album in your Flickr Mathieu! but this is my personal taste! In many of your photos a sense of solitude, loneliness comes out. Oft people photographed from behind are not very interesting, but in your series there is somethiong which adds a kind of interest. It would be nice to know a little bit more about.

My bad for lack of clarity... That is Mathieu's photostream, not mine. What drew me to his work was the element of body language, gesture and playfullness. It is perhaps the body of the work, the point of view, not specific images per se - although there are some that I go back to.

 

[robert blu]

Larry always makes sense, even when he doesn't, and I'm sure he would be the first to argue that he doesn't. Which makes sense, doesn't it?

Great! .

 

[robert blu]

I think themes for me - perhaps extended projects and often simultaneously. At the moment, having scanned 30 boxes of Kodachrome, I’m now reviewing and editing them for my ‘African Walkabout 1995’ project. Yes, these slides have hidden in the attic for a long time and scanning and seeing them, many for the first time has been very moving. I met my wife in Zimbabwe on that 7 month trip and my girls have been delighted to see the first pictures I ever took of her.

I will make a book for us in due course. It’s interesting that amongst the pictures of ‘impressive scenery’ are notes of the everyday that feature to this day - a favourite is my very old Audi in a Namibian petrol station.

I’m only doing limited shooting at the moment due to it being winter and 54 north meaning that the interaction of day length and work are not that conducive… however, that is letting me focus on the slides


back to the original question, I agree that I have less interest in the single image and, also, the impressive impressive image. I’m much more interested in the everyday and pictures that being questions or thoughts to mind. Then there are always my family who are a theme in and of themselves, even when they cross with other ideas.

sorry, long reply🙂

here’s a family X other theme picture from the other week

Family pictures, daily stories are oft very important. Sometimes the most imprtant we have. Among my projects I always take (and print) this kind of photos.

 

[robert blu]

Projects for me too. Some are simple and are easier for others to like (street photography), some are closer to conceptual art and are not as easy to like. However, right now the latter is what works better to keep me occupied. I currently have a few projects that are finished that I have to really edit and then make book dummies for. One I just finished making a zine style book that I am selling locally here in Chile. Since Covid, I have five new projects that I am working on simultaneously. Only one is street photography and that is the one I am working on the least. I certainly use the Friedlander approach though with digital folders instead of boxes of prints.

Five new projects! You must be very busy! Are you satisfied with the sales of your zine? Are you selling through physical stores?

 

[jsrockit]

Five new projects! You must be very busy! Are you satisfied with the sales of your zine? Are you selling through physical stores?

I photograph every single day, but some better than others. I think you do too. 🙂 As far as the zine, I printed 50 and sold about 30 online and with minimal advertising. Of course that it is not much, but it could be worse. The store is my favorite book store in Chile and I was just happy to get in there. I am not sure how it has sold there yet.

 

[robert blu]

I photograph every single day, but some better than others. I think you do too. 🙂 As far as the zine, I printed 50 and sold about 30 online and with minimal advertising. Of course that it is not much, but it could be worse. The store is my favorite book store in Chile and I was just happy to get in there. I am not sure how it has sold there yet.

it seems to me that you have been successful ! Now I'm curious! PM sent you!
And yes, I photograph every day!

 

[Evergreen States]

“Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?”

A single photo that distills the essence of a thought or concept down to its purest embodiment, or a series of photos that portray something, perhaps the same thing, gradually, piece by piece.
Both approaches have, what would seem to me, equal value. If I wanted to be a “better photographer”, it seems that it’s incumbent on me try to master both, as there is nothing inherently impossible about that, or even particularly difficult. Walk and chew gum. Don’t limit yourself, it won’t make you “better”. Don’t be satisfied with solving half the puzzle.
Getting your point across with a series is easier than with a single photo, however. As others have noted, if your single photo needs a caption, (as mine often do) it’s probably not good enough. Alternately, if in your series you can be accused of saying, “here’s another one of”, a la dad’s slideshows in years gone by, then it needs a cull.
Film and digital, do both. Color and Black and White, do both. Read a book, go to a movie, do both. It’s a world ripe with possibilities out there, avail yourself, don’t cramp yourself with the misguided notion that you “can’t”.

I think that your photos of the economic decline of small town America, taken with your Z7 and M mount lenses in the early months of COVID, would very likely make a good photobook. I said it when I first joined the forum and my opinion hasn't changed.