Photo III – “Place Your Project Here”
Rationale,Context, and Examples
Some photographers (e.g., Gregory Crewdson, whose still photographs involve work with lighting, props, and actors that are a lot like movie sets: check out Twilight and Beneath the Roses) work for days to set up a single shot, attempting to create an image that will stand “on its own” as a great painting might. Other photographers might share the same aim: to create pictures that capture and hold the attention and are profound enough to be lasting; but they may have quite different working methods. For example, some of these “other” photographers may shoot quickly, frequently, and rather intuitively, responding to changing events around them. (Photojournalist-artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson would fit into this category.)
Of course, there are more than two kinds of photographers, and my point here is, in fact, that many photographers work within the limits of the following assumption: Because photography inherently tends to limit the degree to which we can impose our own personality on the imagery we create —since the imagery we create usually depends at least partly on the “reality” that is “out there” as our raw material (which is not so for painters) —any single photograph is unlikely to satisfy our artistic intentions as fully as we might like. Given this assumption, many photographers tend to think, and to plan their work, in terms of projects, or groups of images. Such groups may or not actually be conceived as sequences. Robert Frank’s project “The Americans” (from the 1950s: photos Frank took on cross-country car trips across and around the United States) has been exhibited many times, and printed in book form: it’s been shown in various sequences, but in fact Frank had spent much time and thought in determining one very precise order in which he wished the photos to be seen. This sequence was perhaps as much a part of his conception of the project as were the individual photos themselves. A couple of years ago, the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover showed The Americans just as Robert Frank had intended, and those of us who went to see the show (yes, there was a field trip) got to see how this sequencing helped us perceive many interesting connections between the compositions. The basic concept is that the part is greater than the whole, but for this to be so, the photographer must put in some time and effort to make the parts work effectively together.
Nowadays, the ability to conceive one’s own photo projects is seen by many as a very important part of being a photographer. But there are, as suggested above, more than one or two ways of approaching this work. To continue with the example of Robert Frank: He very likely approached his photographic explorations of America in the spirit of exploration. Many critics, especially at the time, felt that his photographs were too critical of the country, that they portrayed the place and its people with too negative and too dark a tone. Such critics perhaps felt that Frank came here (he was Swiss) with some preconceived biases, and looked to find and create photos to support and to express those biases. Certainly, he had a distinctive point of view. But I think we can see, if we look at the total work and at the ways in which he organized his pictures into a sort of “movie,” that much of the time he was probably led by the vision he found in one moment and place to seek out echoes of that same vision elsewhere, and at other moments. In other words, he let the project evolve: he let his images tell him where he should go next. This is a valid way of working, but it might work best if you have the luxury of time and support. (Frank was fortunate to be working with the help of a Guggenheim grant.) It might also work best if you have a lot of self-confidence, and are willing to take risks.
Some photographers consider their work a form of visual diary-keeping. You may be such a photographer, keeping a camera at the ready and trying to record something of visual significance for you every day. The French photographer Jacques Lartigue was just a boy when he began, in the early part of the 20th century, to take photographs of his friends and family having fun. (He was from a wealthy family, so they were doing things like racing cars and flying early biplanes.) As he got older, he continued using photography in the same way, recording the life right around him. The best-known collection of his work is called Diary of a Century. Of course, in putting together this book (with the help of photographer Richard Avedon), Lartigue had to sort through his work, making decisions about what to include and how to sequence his images. In other words, even a diaristic photographer sometimes works in a more project-oriented way, even if it is, so to speak, after the fact.
Some photographers assign themselves diaristic projects that are limited in scope. For instance, one might set him or herself the task of taking one strong photograph every day for a year. (I believe that our own Mr. McGowan has tried this.) The strategy of setting some very specific parameters – taking a photo of the first thing you see when you get out of your car or off the bus; photographing the sky at the same time every day, and so forth — could lead to dull results, but can also be a very powerful approach.
And some photographers have played with the idea and form of a diary, or the related form of the photo album. For example, check out Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s very odd photo book/project The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater. (For this project, Meatyard had all his subjects wear masks. A number of different people (in various photos) wear the same mask, of a character he called Lucybelle Carter. In the style of an annotated photo album, each photo has a caption.) In other words, the diary or journal concept can relate either to the photographer’s way of working and/or to a form that a photographer may borrow and play with.
First Steps
As all of the above suggest, I don’t want to suggest that there are any magic “formulas” for developing your own photographic projects. However, for this assignment, I am asking you to follow certain steps and address certain considerations. You will find, I hope, that, even given the scaffolding I’m asking you to build, you’ve got plenty of room for experimentation and doing things in a way that feels true to yourself.
Review the following list of ways one might begin to develop ideas for photo projects. Respond to each as directed. Then, add at least one item to the list. (This can involve elaborating upon/adding to an existing item.)
a. Review your own photographic work up to this point. Look for patterns in the kinds of shots you seem to create: Do you always tend to compose in a certain way? Do you usually photograph the same sorts of subjects? Do you shoot more at one time of day than another? Do all your best photographs have anything in common? Etc. Write a reflection (at least a couple of paragraphs long) describing patterns you’ve noticed, and discussing whether, for example, you’d rather try to build on existing patterns (but doing so more consciously and with greater awareness of doing so) or would rather try to break out of your visual, conceptual, and procedural habits.
b. Think about project ideas —even fleeting ones that you only considered for a moment —that you’ve had. Reflect on which ones seem to come up again and again, and which have tended to fade from your mind: why the difference? Also reflect on what challenges each project idea brings up: ask yourself why you have not yet attempted one or more of these projects, and whether those reasons are enough to continue to dissuade you from attempting them. (Again, please write at least a couple of meaningful and detailed paragraphs. It may make sense to write in a rather stream-of-consciousness way at first, to get your ideas out; try to revise enough so that everything will make sense to a reader.) One of the most useful things to do at this point could be to take a project idea you’ve had that you think is not very feasible and do the following: 1. Identify the shortcoming of the idea: Is the problem not the idea itself but your lack of time and resources? Is the idea too vague to provide you enough guidance? etc., then, 2. Propose revisions and elaborations of the idea (perhaps simplifications would be even better in some cases!) and explain how these might render your idea not just feasible but exciting and appealing.
c. Research past and contemporary photo projects. Find at least one photo project from at least thirty or more years ago, and one from the past decade. Research each enough (I will provide support as needed) so as to gain an appreciation for the motivations of the photographer and his/her motivations and intentions, and for the challenges s/he may have needed to overcome (and how they did so). Write up this research briefly (one or two paragraphs for each photographer will suffice, though more will be welcome). Then, write an additional reflection of at least a couple of paragraphs in which you suggest possible inspirations for you and your photographic work in those projects. How might you draw from that earlier work, and perhaps build upon it in a direction that seems important and exciting to you?
d. List a number of aesthetic issues that relate to photography. We have dealt with several over the years. These can range from the idea of finding beauty in the everyday to questions of how best to use symmetry to various ways of combining imagery or composing photographs. “The decisive moment” is an aesthetic idea that relates to an ideal of composition which values repetition with various, and which prizes the elegant interrelationships the photographer finds or creates among the smaller elements making up his/her composition. Our recent “collage” project involved a very specific and very different aesthetic. Write a brief reflection in which you relate one or more aesthetic issues to broader non-aesthetic concerns. That is, discuss how a particular aesthetic approach may or may not help you achieve other aims, such as to convey an emotion or a point of view, or to show people the “truth” of a situation.
e. Devise a set of visual problems for yourself. As an example, here’s a problem I’m considering presenting to Photo I students this year: create a photograph with symmetry but without a centered main subject. And here’s a variation of that idea which I might use with Photo II: Treat the same subject in both a symmetrical and a non-symmetrical manner. With those examples in the back of your mind, come up with several (at least four) visual problems that you think might be interesting to tackle. Write up your problems, and describe how you think at least one of the problems might serve as the focus of a photo project.
f. Consider a thematic or subject-oriented approach. Is there a topic or issue, or a place, you wish to explore in a serious and extended manner using photography? Given our discussion last year of typological photography (as exemplified by Bernd and Hilla Becher’s work with water towers, blast furnaces, and similar industrial subjects), you could extend the subject-oriented approach in this sort of direction.