Archives for January 2009
New Photos
So much for not posting new work for a little while! These photos make me happy and I wanted to get them out into the world. Maybe I’ve been over-thinking it, and in the end, that’s all there is to it?
Unexpected collaboration
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
Of all the photographs I took in 2008, there is one in particular that I still think about quite a bit. This image has haunted me, in a way. I came upon the scene, near the beach in Sheepshead Bay, in February of 2008, and photographed it as I found it. I’ve never been able to figure out exactly what was going on, but the image has been in my mind ever since.
Body of Work
To follow up on yesterday’s post, I wanted to explore the concept of the “body of work” a bit more, especially questions I still have about defining a project, sharing work-in-progress, and knowing when you’re done. On Conscientious yesterday, Jörg talked a bit about how he experiences art, specifically in the context of comparing new work to previous work from the same artist. He uses the body of work as a way to distinguish the new from the old. Books or gallery shows are an easy way to think about this: Uncommon Places is clearly a single, cohesive body of work. Every image is related to every other image in some way or another, they explore the same themes, and there is a point where Shore said to himself “I am done with this work, I am ready to send it out into the world.”
Editing
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, New York
It’s a topic that has been discussed a million times, but just for my own sake I’ll say it again: editing is hard. It might be the most difficult thing we, as photographers, have to do. It’s a long process that starts before we even take our first picture and continues right up until we finally decide that the work is complete. And then, more than likely, you shuffle things around one more time for good measure.