What 'project' are you working on?

[Bruce Pollock]

I need a whack on the side of the head to get me out in the world and shoot some film. I need a new idea for a photo project. What are you working on? Care to share your subject ideas with others?

I was working on the idea of windows and frames -- it's interesting how the world is reframed twice: once by the camera frame and once by the window you are shooting through.

Got any urban landscape ideas? Wilderness ideas? Any ideas appreciated.

[Tony Karnezis]

I'm starting a series of B&W abstracts of urban graffiti. I carry a Mamiya 6 with me in the car & shoot whatever I see. If I like what I develop, I plan on going back either with the 4x5 or, ideally, the 8x10 for images to contact print.

[John Kasaian]

Portraits of mules who work at commercial pack stations. Local wineries and vineyards with a ULF pinhole wine barrel camera. Historic churches. I have an ongoing project of recording whats left of the nieghborhood I grew up in before it evaporates into history (but for some reason I'm doing it on 127 format because it seems more appropriate) Night photography, especially of brilliantly lighted places like amusement parks. Trails that meander off into nature. And anything rusty. :)

[Allen in Montreal]

I have taken up shooting a huge expressway interchange that is getting a 1.6 billion dollar overhaul. The demolition and reconstruction will take 6 years. That gives me time to make a few frames along the way. :)

I also shoot the changing of the Lachine Canal, from the life line of shipping an industry, to dead and shut down, when the current seaway opened in 59, to making a comeback with condos, bike paths etc. I started to shoot when they announced the cleanup and re-opening of the canal a few years ago. I wish I had shot more when it was just rotting, it has lost its charm now that it is being "Yuppified"! :mad:

[Allen in Montreal]

I'm starting a series of B&W abstracts of urban graffiti. I carry a Mamiya 6 with me in the car........

Sweet camera, great project. Graffiti is out of control in most cities and the bulk of it is not art, just "tags". But when it is good, it is really good!

[Vaughn]

Long term project -- portraits of my boys in the landscape...8x10 in palladium/platinum

Short term project -- handmade book of images from this summer...2 1/4 x 2 1/4 images in palladium/platinum.

Continous project -- learn how to see better through photographing the light on the landscape...prints in platinum/palladium and in carbon, 8x10 and also now a 5x7.

Vaughn

[DuncanD]

Here's my project for the last several years, focusing on Marin and Sonoma counties in Northern California.

[Bruce Barlow]

I put up my new website with galleries, and looking at the pictures decided that I needed to make a sharp turn and shake the cage.

8x10 portraits on the street. I give myself one expeosure per person, so I need to learn to get it right!

I'm also contact printing 5x7 and 8x10 pictures from last year's trip to Maine.

[GPS]

-snip
I was working on the idea of windows and frames -- it's interesting how the world is reframed twice: once by the camera frame and once by the window you are shooting through.

Got any urban landscape ideas? Wilderness ideas? Any ideas appreciated.

Bruce, not a bad idea at all. It's been more than 9 months that I shoot a view from my window (South, without the window frame but framed in the camera). A third of the frame is filled with generous tree crowns (mighty chestnuts) in the foreground, ever changing in the season and light, the other part is a maze of roofs on historical buildings and on the top of it a great deal of sky with clouds and lights that never cease to amaze me. I have taken about 40 strong pictures - morning, evening, full light, Autumn, winter etc. and there is a potential for three times more, at least. Sometimes I just sit in an armchair, admiring the spectacle - it changes almost by a minute and shows so many variants that it is incredible. My friends cannot believe that it is a simple view out of a window, they thought some kind of a touristic viewpoint!
All this taken at whatever weather in the piece of my home. Great wall pictures too!

[Richard M. Coda]

I've been documenting Phoenix, AZ. It started out as one project but has evolved into several. Started out doing older buildings that have seen better days, then I went downtown and started doing newer office building abstracts, then I started doing old-fashioned street photography (with the 8x10), then I finally got good at doing color...

They key, is to make it routine. I go out almost every Sunday morning before the girls get up, and am usually back by 10-11 AM. By routine, I don't mean boring... just make it a part of your weekly schedule – something you HAVE to do. And don't forget to treat yourself right, too... make sure you get a nice cup of coffee and a good breakfast while you're out!

Check my website and blog out for some pics.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Right now the project is reassembling my darkroom in our new apartment after moving about a week ago. We've got a spare bathroom, so I'll actually be able to leave it set up permanently, and should be able to become much more productive than I've been in the last two places where I had temporary dark/bathrooms. Just about everything is set up. I've got another little tweak or two with the plumbing, and then I've got to make it dark.

When that's done, I can get back to my project of late, which is to put together some sort of Hawai'ian portfolio from the images I've been shooting there over the last several years.

[paulr]

I've been procrastinating on making 20 prints for a show that has to happen before the end of the year. It's my first color project ever, and I don't completely know what I'm doing. The creative part is finished. What lies ahead is all the 'making it happen' busywork, including lots of hours staring at photoshop and hoping my color correction skills are up to the task.

Next project ... I don't know. I'd like to stretch myself. Go out and do something that I really don't know how to do (in terms of images, not just nuts and bolts). Try to be untethered by what's familiar or by fear of failure. Who cares if it fails. It's just photography! A thought that's been bouncing around has been to do a series of pictures inspired by a particular Wallace Stevens poem.

[venchka]

Thanks for the great ideas!

A variation on the graffitti theme: Find a railroad crossing and photograph the graffiti on rail cars. This idea is in the back of my head and I will make an effort soon.

Old churches, anything rusty and weathered wood are favorites of mine. Sometimes I get really lucky and find all 3 in the same place.

Thanks again for the inspiration.

[jnantz]

i have a few sporadic long term projects -

i have a series going where i photograph friends, strangers and shopkeepers,
some at work in their work environment some not ... some with 4x5 some
as big as 11x14 and 7x11.

recording industrial buildings/remnants around southeastern new england.
i've shot with paper and film and will probably use dry plates when i get my
act together ...

[Diane Maher]

I am currently working on a project of the confluence parks around the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. I have some photos I took last year and earlier this year. At the moment, I am waiting for the water to go down sufficiently so I can see what these places look like after this year's flooding.

[Jan Nieuwenhuysen]

-Ongoing project in portraying people with an addiction.
-Formulating a photographic answer to a conceptual work of art (http://www.galeriewest.nl/site.php?idsub=exhibitions&single=08_06_Le_Commissariat&show=works&idpic=10) by French artists Vincent Ganivet and Simon Boudvin. (If anyone has experience in embedding led lights in polyurethane for even, diffuse lighting...)
-Developing new three dimensional work (sculptural installation) containing a photographic 'skin'.

[alanps]

An ebook I have been planning for a long while - photographs of my time (more than landscapes) on Mull in Scotland.
However, may have had an exposure disaster with 100 sheets of 5x4 - can't currently bring myself to process them :-(
Alan

[eddie]

i ahve been shooting post offices. it seemed that every time i drove down a rural street i would run across another PO (unless i needed one). so i decided to shoot them. i have been slacking for several years but it is an ongoing thing....i am constantly reminded of my project when i see the PO.

eddie

[Ole Tjugen]

I'm planning a fairly large project of very small things in my own garden. I'll have to use 4x5" for this macro project, since I'm thinking of prints up to 100x125cm!

what things?

Lichen. My garden is "sub-vertical", with lots of lichen-encrusted clipps and rocks. I'm aiming for an exhibition of between 8 and 15 very large prints of very small details.

Or at least that's my excuse for having a 120mm Macro-Nikkor...

[Vaughn]

i ahve been shooting post offices...snip
eddie


Is this what is referred to as "Going Postal"?;)

Vaughn

[Struan Gray]

A project that started as an excuse to spend my lunch hours walking in the woods has started to gel into a survey of the ghosts of pre C20th woodmanship that live on as patterns in the local flora, and as unquestioned tradition in local gardening styles.

[xmishx]

I went to a jazz club a little over a week ago and found some great faces, both in the crowd and the musicians playing. When I get some subjects, I'll probably shoot digital or Hasselblad and those that I feel I can work with, I'll try some 4x5 down the road.

Working on projects or series is important to keep your chops in check. If you not behing the camera shooting, you won't be as good as you can be!

[Dan Schmidt]

Yoga asanas (poses) in the studio with my 8x10 sometimes with a 5x7 reducing back.

negative scans from the sessions here

http://www.danschmidt.com/ProofScans/

in general i don't like simple viewer , but it is nice for displaying large numbers of images

[Daniel_Buck]

shooting race cars with a focal-plane speedgraphic, (for those interesting leaning effects)

[wclavey]

I have 2 long term projects:


One called "Texas from the side of the road" - - I take non-interstate roads wherever possible and stop to photograph along the way, not entering onto anyones' private property, just road shoulders and parking lots.

The other started out being called "Closed" but over the past year has become
"Abandoned" - - a subset of closed.

But shooting abandoned things has led me to photographing historical things as well which are not abandoned... although I prefer the abandoned ones more than the touristified ones.

[Maris Rusis]

"Views of Snow-Gums", a cycle of about thirty 8x10 gelatin silver contacts celebrating the last intact grove of ancient snow-gum trees on earth.

Australia has millions of snow-gum trees that live only between 1100 and 1850 metres altitude. They are the antipodean equivalent of Bristle-Cone pines and can be huge, ancient, gnarled, and sometimes wider in the trunk than they are high. Unfortunately Australia catches fire often so old unburnt trees are rare.

This photographic effort is a "project", not a "visual diary", because it has a beginning, an end, and an internal unity. Two weeks of camera work, four months of darkroom sessions, collating and sequencing have been done. Now comes signing, titling, and annotating so that if someone picks up the set (or just one piece) tomorrow or two hundred years from now it still makes sense and can be read as intended.

After that I'm off to do a group of body-painters; sort of August Sander meets Diane Arbus meets Richard Avedon. Gulp!

[IanMazursky]

The first one and the most important to me is a family album in 4x5. Its something that is very important to all of us. My family is getting older and I want a record of my grandparents, parents, siblings....

The second is documenting the old railroad that used to run from NY to boston. Most of the old railroad is long gone but the ruins of it are hidden and make for some great pictures (http://www.ianmazursky.com/galleries/Projects/Projects/Railroads.html).

Both of them are long term but fun!

[Mike Castles]

Well, as part of the Texas Church Project - old Texas Churches along with some other photographers.

Other projects - one for my wife on stars (as she calls them Texas stars - or stars found in Texas), small towns, buildings from pre-1900 through the 1940's, lawn furniture (can't seem to get this one going other than seeing what I should be photographing).

[Photojeep]

I have been on-again, off-again shooting American flags. Not sure where the project's going but it is fun when I run accross a flag. Nice little suprise every now and then.

[Hollis]

I have been on the road for 15 weeks now and have been shooting my travels west and North. I am going to be circumnavigating (correct term???) North America for a whole year and shooting any and everything. As of right now, I have two solid bodies of work right now - The Human Condition and Solitary. They are unnamed on my website but you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

www.hollisbennett.com

[Frank Petronio]

I've been making photos of women that I find attractive.

[jetcode]

I've been making photos of women that I find attractive.

why?

[Richard M. Coda]

Photojeep: Flags are cool. I have found several flags buried deep in other photographs I have made... so there may be another project!

[Vaughn]

why?

Always a good question, Joe, when asked without a preconceived answer.

I too photograph what attracts me. And as I find most of the women Frank photographs to be unattractive to me (but by no means ugly), I am not so surprised when others find what I photograph to be unattractive to them...some folks can only take so many rocks and trees...no matter how beautiful the light is on them;)

Sometimes "Because they are there" can be a valid answer. My on-going series of my boys was started partly because my wife works and if I want to go photograph out in the redwoods I have to take my three boys with me.

Vaughn

[Ken Lee]

"I've been making photos of women that I find attractive."

"why?"

As Willam Blake said, "Eternity is in love with the forms of Time."

[Frank Petronio]

Why?

I've been photographing attractive young women for the past two years because... well, when I was younger (their age) I was very shy and awkward around attractive women. Now that I am older, married, and feeble/impotent/fugly, I've become "safe" and simply by treating them respectfully and normally, I've been able to get to know a slew of interesting young ladies. Through photography I've been able to break through the barriers that otherwise exist between people in very different times of their lives.

I think it is far harder to break through those barriers with men, older women, different cultures, etc. It is my weakness that I choose to do this with young women who are already inclined to "model" or like attention. Being a decent "ok" photographer opens a lot of doors, and really I just sort of pick and choose who I think would be good to photograph and get to know. I tend to pick articulate, smart, alternative types, they are the most interesting in my experience. I've shot with some very classically beautiful women, even an amazing Penthouse Pet, but I rather shoot with a articulate yet plainer girl than some knock-out who doesn't have a clue.

It comes pretty easily once you start, and it is a little addictive. I figure I might be able to translate my experience and confidence into doing editorial portraiture, fringe fashion, and maybe even an niche advertising job. And there is a fine art aspect to it as well, at least so people tell me.

And I enjoy the novelty of it all. If I were a better photographer I could do great photos of homelier, older, uglier men and women that are just as good as my "OK" photos of attractive young women. But I am weak and I like their company and, just like you landscapists, it's nice to observe the scenery.

That's why.

FWIW After two years I am winding it down and looking for more diverse subjects. But the experience has given me a lot of confidence.

[jetcode]

Thanks Frank ... I left the question wide open because a persons character really shines in such circumstances. I enjoy your work and vision. In my eyes you have developed a style and artistic identity. That is significant IMO.

I look forward to seeing what this new transition will bring the world.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

I'm fixing the heater in my van. Photographically, it's a necessity in cold weather.

[jetcode]

I'm fixing the heater in my van. Photographically, it's a necessity in cold weather.

If you lived in Minnesota I might be more inclined to believe you but Santa Barbara?

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Joe, I DO travel, and often to high elevations!

[jetcode]

Joe, I DO travel, and often to high elevations!

Of course but it's not like you have to shovel 4' of snow to find your truck first!

I remember working a Toll bridge (toll system development) on the Grosse Isle bridge in Detroit one winter. On the bank the steel mills were glowing red from molten metal and floating down the middle of the river was this rather large iceburg heading right for the bridge. That was cold.

[darr]

Since moving to the Tallahassee area last July, I have recently started shooting area attractions and landscapes for local art sales. A few ...

http://cameraartist.com/images/st_marks_landscape_03.jpg
St. Marks, FL

http://cameraartist.com/images/gulf_station_01.jpg
Quincy, FL

http://cameraartist.com/images/old_trucks_3.jpg
Wakulla, FL


Best,
Darr

[jetcode]

Darr your photographs are really interesting, a lot of character and variety, and creatively printed. I really like the light in the Gulf station and the old trucks are great.

[darr]

Darr your photographs are really interesting, a lot of character and variety, and creatively printed. I really like the light in the Gulf station and the old trucks are great.

Thank you for your kind words Joe. I love photographing ordinary objects since I truly believe there is life in everything. :)

Best,
Darr

[sanchi heuser]

Hi Bruce,
why not stay home and make some stillifes.

Or just make a project on your question.I mean ,try to visualize your quest for a project.
Yes I know ,that's not so easy.But it could be quite interessting.

[Ted Stoddard]

My project has not gotten off the ground yet too much going on at home for the moment... but I am in the planning stages of working with the 20x24 in San Francisco to do a large collection of "Still Life's" by shooting Polaroid film and making them all Polaroid Transfers... one in particular will be in memory of my nephew who got killed in Afghanistan in May particularly on Mother's Day... I am only going to do maybe 5 of each image and that's all 1 to keep for myself and the other to sell... but "Still Life" is a great idea if you can not get out... I continue my still life's all the time since I can not go anywhere yet...

[Ted Stoddard]

also one of these images will be given to my sister to help her heal... a show after I finish would be a great Idea.... but can not think that far ahead yet...

[jetcode]

To the OP I am still working on my archives, finding what I consider the better content and scanning and printing but deep inside I am dying to get on with some new LF images. I want to do some macro still life work this year and I still have the desire to shoot a S.F. based cityscape portfolio.

[Tom Conway]

I'm working on a set of B&W images with the general theme of "Combinations." Specifically, combining two or more flowers not generally seen together, items from the beach, scenes from a cemetary, etc. By going out with a theme I seem to "see" differently. . .reactions?

[Ken Lee]

I am working on Composition.


http://www.kenleegallery.com/images/forum/img199C.jpg

[domenico Foschi]

I am working on Composition.


http://www.kenleegallery.com/images/forum/img199C.jpg

And that, dear Ken, is a wonderful example of elegance, and of understanding that less is more.
I feel obliged to bow in front of Beauty.

[Ken Lee]

Thank you for kind words of encouragement.

[scott russell]

I live in Baltimore city where places that are completely new, renovated, and currently out of my price range are only 1-2 city blocks away from neighborhoods full of boarded up houses getting ready to cave in,where you can easily buy crack or heroin from the nearby convenience stores. there are something like 40,000 abandoned houses in Baltimore. The city doesn't seem to be getting any better, the problem just moves around as people are now fleeing the suburbs so they can live near their place of business and ditch their car. I drive around in these neighborhoods (i live in a warehouse apartment that is directly in one of them. The mayor deemed this the "station north arts district" as he realized the pattern of broke artists moving into bad neighborhoods and eventually making them safe for the yuppies to move into working so well.) looking for the more interesting architectural sites and shoot them on with a cambo sc. I've also been into a little bit of still life/macro stuff of found objects concentrating on form and subject matter above all else.

[venchka]

Ken,

I wish I knew as much as you have probably forgotten.

My current "project" involves learning 4x5 from scratch and in the process, learning photography. I'm still making dumb mistakes. If my current direction has a name, it's "Absence of clutter."

[Allen in Montreal]

I am working on Composition.


http://www.kenleegallery.com/images/forum/img199C.jpg

Very nice Ken,
What did you print on?

[Allen in Montreal]

A touch off topic, sorry,
Scott, I have a friend who moved there for work recently, bought an old run down building and turned into a wonderful place only a few blocks from his office, but he says he must drive to work because of what lies in the few blocks between his home and work! Hard to imagine.

Can you buy a beater and slowly fix it up yourself, may be a great way to get enough space to have a great darkroom and studio space too. We all know how artists always get run out of the area they brought back to life when they only rent. :(


I live in Baltimore city where places that are completely new, renovated, and currently out of my price range are only 1-2 city blocks away from neighborhoods full of boarded up houses getting ready to cave in,where you can easily buy crack or heroin from the nearby convenience stores..........

[GSX4]

I've been working on a new series called 'Bygones' documenting old and sometimes dilapidated structures, and objects left by others once they've been used. Mainly with medium format, but also the 4x5 comes out now and again. These images were all taken in Door County WI, and the prints were lightly bleached back, lightly sepia toned, then finished in selenium toner.

[Ken Lee]

Very nice Ken,
What did you print on?

I have not printed this image yet.

The shot is a scan from a 5x7 negative, made with a 250mm Tessar barrel lens on TMY, developed in Pyrocat HD.

I "tone" my images digitally, using the Photoshop Fill (http://www.kenleegallery.com/bronze.htm) method.

[Ken Lee]

I wish I knew as much as you have probably forgotten.

I am convinced that we all have an inherent sense of design and proportion, built-in to our physiology. With attention and practice, we can develop it. There is no end to the process. Most of us have to start at the bottom and work our way up from there. I did.

I'm fortunate to have found my mentor (Fred Picker) early, as a teenager. He gave me two or three techniques for developing the eye, which I have used for so long, that even I can see a little progress now and then.

[Barry Trabitz]

Andrew Moxom's post struck a chord. My ongoing project is based on one of the translations of the word "Anasazi". "Those who came before" Within this context are tombs. cemeteries ghost towns, old barns etc. We are planning a road trip to the Southwest ( from Connecticut ) after Labor Day. I hope to gather enough new images to have a show sometime in the next year.

Barry Trabitz

[Gordon Moat]

Project Development: new multi-format camera

Explorations: juxtaposition; half seconds; Culture Jamming

The camera is coming out of a prototype I built and have been using the last couple months. So far I have decided that the best way to get the weight down well under 2kgs (making hand held shots easier) is to go the CAD/CAM route. Lots of details to work out, but it is 70% there already.

The Explorations might not be intuitive, but I like the challenge of interpretation. I try not to give myself too rigid a definition of ideas, then I can imagine how each scene might fit into one (or more) of the concepts.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography (http://www.gordonmoat.com)

[Andrew O'Neill]

Native churches here in BC, and Ukrainian churches around Saskatchewan. Me and a couple of guys just came back from Saskatchewan. Will go back again for more perhaps next summer.

[tim810]

East coast abandoned mills. Up and down the Hudson and right behind my apt in Will CT.

tim8x10.com Check in the gallery under Mills. I have a piece I wrote entitled "forgotten places" attached in the mills gallery that explains my intentions. I am shooting in 8x10, 12x20 and soon to be 20x24


Enjoy
Tim

[jim kitchen]

My project for the past few months was not a new project, but a collection of smaller projects that required a wee bit better focus... :)

My focus this past summer happened to be enriching and reinforcing my twelve-year old son's outdoor skills, where we drove along the numerous logging roads, and hiked several kilometers throughout the trails within Alberta's southwest foothills this past summer, and where I could not begin to describe our excellent discussions, while spending captured time together during the day and evening. Alex is slowly becoming a critic, and not because he must carry my 8X10 film holders in his backpack and record my notes, but because I find his open discussion regarding the newly acquired outdoor life skills, and his image making questions very enlightening.

Alex's criticism is also centered around the fact that he cannot review every image I place on the ground glass, since Alex is just shy of my chest height, but he is fast approaching that moment where he will gently push me aside to review what is on the glass. So, for the moment, Alex is regulated to capturing the notes, the light meter readings, calculating the f-stop and shutter speed with minor guidance, and being cognizant of our wilderness surroundings.

That said, the following image represents the first of approximately sixty new images I managed to capture within southwestern Alberta, while hiking with Alex this past summer, where the images represent a portion of my project within the Municipal District of Willow Creek, Kananaskis Country, and Municipal District of Rangeland.

jim k

Seven-forty-five PM, Stoney Creek, Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada.

http://largeformatgroupimages.jimkitchen.ca/images/StonyCreek.jpg

[scott russell]

A touch off topic, sorry,
Scott, I have a friend who moved there for work recently, bought an old run down building and turned into a wonderful place only a few blocks from his office, but he says he must drive to work because of what lies in the few blocks between his home and work! Hard to imagine.

Can you buy a beater and slowly fix it up yourself, may be a great way to get enough space to have a great darkroom and studio space too. We all know how artists always get run out of the area they brought back to life when they only rent. :(

I'm the road for saving to buy a beat up house, but pretty much everyone had that idea. They all bought houses and tried to flip them, and now with the housing market practically crashing houses are starting to get cheaper again. the catch is that its almost impossible to get a loan because of all the irresponsible mortgage brokers and buyers that sold/bought houses they couldn't afford. I'm only 21 and my income doesn't come close to what i need to get approved for a loan (although i could quite easily make the payments). Where was the building your friend bought?

[Michael Graves]

I'm working with a couple of people in my home town to put together a small coffee-table type book of photographs taken within the township borders. The title of the book is 05454 and we hope to have about 40 images before we're done. I'm using just about every camera I own for this, ranging from a 2 1/4 Rolleiflex to my 8x10 Toyo. Here is a sample image.

[Allen in Montreal]

......


My focus this past summer happened to be enriching and reinforcing my twelve-year old son's outdoor skills, where we drove along the numerous logging roads, and hiked several kilometers throughout the trails within Alberta's southwest foothills this past summer....


What a great summer you guys must have had!

I wish we had such stunning views in our backyard here in the east. :(

[Allen in Montreal]

I'm the road for saving to buy a beat up house, but pretty much everyone had that idea. They all bought houses and tried to flip them, and now with the housing market practically crashing houses are starting to get cheaper again. the catch is that its almost impossible to get a loan because of all the irresponsible mortgage brokers and buyers that sold/bought houses they couldn't afford. I'm only 21 and my income doesn't come close to what i need to get approved for a loan (although i could quite easily make the payments). Where was the building your friend bought?

21, still young, but clearly your head is in the right place and far more so than 99.99 percent of people your age! My hat goes off to you.

I do not know the district names, but he works at john Hopkins, so the house is only minutes from there, if that makes any sense.

Another buddy here bought back in the day when Old Montreal was the "photo district", few photographers remain, all driven out years ago.