Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Last night I reviewed portfolios at the Houston Photographic Society meeting. Rita had invited me to come over and participate in the new meeting format for last evening. I learned a great deal about work being done by others and about my own efforts.
There is no doubt that most of us share many of the same problems when it comes to producing a "body of work". Much of the work I have done over the past however many years is very much of a random nature. It is without a specific focus on a subject or a style. I have been rationalizing it to the fact that I have been learning to make pictures and that I like to "experiment".
I simply haven't narrowed the work down to specifics in terms of what I'm taking pictures of or why I'm taking them.
Rita passed out a copy of an article written by Brooks Jensen, editor and publisher of LENSWORK. Jensen talks about his project to make 100 finished prints. What he means by that is that he went back through his collected negatives and actually produced 100 ( actually 103) finished prints, something he had never done before. He learned a great deal from the experience and his lessons apply to all of us.
In summary my take away was;
organize
Systematize
and MAKE Pictures.
Really not much more to it than that, although it sounds easier in theory than it might be in execution.

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