How do you come up with a project?

[jnantz]

im not sure how i come up with projects ... they just sort of happen.
what i usually do is just take photographs.
enjoy making the exposures, and meeting the people seeing the "stuff" ... not just once but a few times
and a few more times, and eventually a project happens ...
the most important thing is not have have any preconceptions or a closed mind
and be open for anything ... like true-love, a project happens when you least xpect it.

[Phil O.]

First thing that comes to mine, as far as offering advice, comes from a quote that I've carried with me since visiting the crypt beneath the St. Paul Cathedrial in London back in 1973. These were the words on the headstone as I remember them:

"Go after that which is lost"


And here is another quote which I think is compatible with that:

"Contemplation of the too familiar from an unfamiliar viewpoint enables us to to experience it once more... By dealing with things, by making use of them, by becoming accustomed to them, as we say, we lose sight of them."

- John Hall Wheelock

[Dennis]

Supposedly there is no such thing as an original idea or thought. It all comes from input. Projects, or ideas and series seem to come from out of no where but curiosity in how to evolve what I have discovered by accident. Reading an old Leonard Cohen interview he said that he doesn't know where his poetry and music come from, he feels like he is being an instrument for something else. I think the idea of staying open and clear as possible to be a conduit for something larger is a good concept. Even if it is a fantasy it is a good idea.
Dennis

[andreios]

Dear friends,
thank you so much for lots of ideas how to approach this. Of course, there is no such thing as the "one right" way to do things, but all these thoughts of yours are really very helpful - some open new vistas, point me in various directions, but all of them are for me very encouraging. Thank you for that.

[chassis]

I don't photograph commercially, so all of my work is for myself, or others in the form of gifts. I tend to think of "projects" one image at a time. I think about my surroundings and wonder what images could be made. As time goes on I gravitate towards a few ideas, and then start to make some images of one subject.

I have been working on an image for a year now, and am getting closer to my vision, but I am not there. I have shot it with different lighting conditions, lenses and compositions/viewpoints. I am going to give myself an artificial deadline to finish this project, and then move on. This is how I work at this stage of my journey.

[thefurman]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Personally, here's what I do.

I start with the themes in life that touch me on the highest level. Ever since I remember myself, I've been obsessed with mortality, both my own and mortality in general. I have a very raw appreciation for just how fragile and transient everything around us really is. This isn't a morbid obsession - I see a lot of beauty in the cycle of life and death. You could say, that I see this as the source of all beauty. Everything I do photographically is about this in one way or another, whether it's a portrait or a conceptual photo (1, 2).

That being as it is, every project that I do is a specific way for me to explore some aspect of this larger theme. The way I think about individual projects, generally, is by picking something around which the project is going to be structured. That something can be a technique (I've done series of heavily distorted portraits, for example, by shooting through various glass objects). I've done projects that were held together by a setting, a location, or a general look-and-feel. I've had projects centered around people (most specifically, my wife and my daughter, who I photograph a lot, consistently, over the years). When I sit down to think about projects, I try to do as much sketching as I can. I'm not very good at drawing, so I don't usually show these sketches to anyone, but I generally lay out a whole bunch of ideas for the shots I want to take before I actually start working on something. Then, once I have a coherent mental picture, I go about figuring out how (and whether) I can get it done - look for locations and models, figure out technical details such as lighting, and so on.

This didn't come out as coherent as I hoped it would. Well, hope it helps anyways...

alex

[neil poulsen]

I'm so inclined to look at a scene and think to myself, that would make a really neat composition. That thought too often plays the dual role of being the first and last time that I think about that image!

Lately when I see such a scene, I photograph it with my cell phone camera as a reminder. Since I carry my phone almost all of the time, good images don't slip my mind.

[Jay DeFehr]

I have never been a project-oriented photographer, so take my comments with a healthy grain of salt. It seems, from my perspective, there are at least two categories of projects: the ones we don't realize we're working on until afterwards, and the ones we plan and execute. Until recently, mine have been of the former variety -- very long term projects with no definite end point. Lately, I've been working on the other kind, too. When I'm planning projects, I categorize them as being either consecutive, or concurrent. When working on a consecutive project all others are put on hold until it's finished. These tend to be rather short term projects, for obvious reasons, often with deadlines, and there is a real danger they can become oppressive. Concurrent projects can be short term, or long term, but tend to not have deadlines. With these kinds of projects there is a danger of accumulating too many of them, which diffuses energy and creates competition for resources.

I realize none of the above addresses where projects come from, but I think it's important to keep in mind, when they do come. For me, projects consist of identifying my subject(s), and my final destination for the work (book, gallery, website, etc), from which most of the details follow. It's all new to me, and I'm enjoying myself very much. Best of luck with whatever project inspires you!

[Vaughn]

Projects have found me.

[Darin Boville]

I've actually been trying to get a handle on this these last few years, mostly in order to get the work done. Too much was "dying on the vine" for want of simple execution.

I categorize my projects with pseudo film lingo: pre-production, production, post-production. Pre-production encompasses everything from the partial ideas or fragments I write down on a white board to highly focused research leading up the the project. Production is generally when I'm making images. Post production is all that follows, which basically means I have the basic images, now I have to print them.

It sound call nice and neat but in reality is a mess, but at least it adds *some* sort of structure. In reality there is test printing going on in pre-production, further research and changes to the ideas while in production, and sometimes dramatic changes in direction in post-production. But, like I said, having at least an attempt at structure is good. I try to keep one project in each category at all times.

The white board has been very useful in the process for capturing fragments of ideas. I might have an idea for a cool photo or a series of photos, or an interesting technical idea, or a sort of intellectual framework, or a "connectedness" between two different ideas. All sorts of things. Sometimes, as things move along, some will merge or divide, or change in all sorts of ways.

How they get to the white board in the first place is sort of the mysterious part. But not so mysterious. From looking at other photographs, other kids of art, from music, from politics, history, just thinking about stuff. Sort of percolates up. Just let it happen.

--Darin