how do you define & approach a photography project?

[Hector.Navarro]

I am sure some people here have dealt with this issue at one point in their career, but I have not and that is:


how do you define & approach a photography project?


I have heard that creativity is 10% inspiration & 90% perspiration, and I assume that "perspiration" is the Execution (logistics, technical, etc.), Printing & Presentation (I know that I may be missing more steps here).

My question is aimed at how do you get from the "inspiration" into the self assignment.
Thank you for your comments.

[John Bowen]

Hector,

My recommendation is based on Fine Focus Workshops I've taken with Bruce Barlow. In a former life Bruce was a Management Consultant and has written many, many project plans.

Bruce recommends:

Definie your project. You begin with the final product (ie 20 Covered Bridges of New England...PS, Bruce would NEVER pick postcards as a project...Covered Bridges is an inside joke) and work backwords from there.

When must the project be finished? Set a deadline...AND STICK TO IT!!!

Will the prints be framed and displayed? Get yourself a display area, it could be a local library, coffee shop, or your living room.

What size will the prints be? Will you be doing the printing? How much time will you require to do the prints, spot the prints, mat the prints, deliver the prints to the "gallery?" Subtract this time so you know when you'll have to begin printing.

How many prints will you need? If you require 15 and your "% of keepers is 5%" you'll need to shoot 300+ negatives. How long will it take to make the photographs, develop the negatives, proof the negatives, then live with them prior to selecting the negatives to make final prints from? Again, subtract this time so you know whether your project will need some sort of modification.

GET BUSY AND HAVE FUN!!!


I've told Bruce over the years, that his workshops are my deadlines. I have to have finished, mounted prints for his print reviews.

Bruce's book "Finely Focused" is available on the www.circleofthesunproductions.com site for $25 including postage. Bruce does a much better job on projects then I've done here.

[ASRafferty]

I think we can all agree that covered bridges make no sense at all... who would do such a thing as a project?? But does that mean that Bruce's next book on project management will be called "The Oxen-Bow Incident"? :)

To the OP... the 90% seems to me to be what you find in the search for how to get from here to where you thought you were going. The inspiration is the part that finds you.

[Bruce Barlow]

Mr. Bowen said it pretty well. Two additional thoughts:

First, write your ideas down for the details of your project. If you can't succinctly write them, your thinking isn't developed well enough. Fuzzy writing equals fuzzy thinking.

Second, beware of expanding the scope. "Scope Creep" has killed many a project, because things got too big and out of hand. Instead, define follow-on projects, but stick to your original idea without making it bigger.

Lastly, I wholeheartedly agree with the "have fun" part!

[Ash]

The best thing to do is get an idea in your mind, have it written down. Vague, specific, who cares? Then jump out the door and DO it. Take any photo's that feel they might help toward the overall goal. When you come back you can select the ones that fit, the ones that don't, and go re-shoot if you need to.


Prime example, the stereo shots.

Inspiration: I wanted to take an interesting series of stereo images.
Perspiration: After a failed attempt at making my own stereo camera I bought a fuji passport camera from Dirk on this forum.

Inspiration: Elliott Erwitt and his "Dogs" book. But colour and 3D.
Perspiration: As soon as I saw a sunny afternoon I walked the 1/4 mile into an area with fields and a lot of dog walkers, and spent the next few hours approaching strangers, talking to them about the project (who I am, what I am doing, why I am doing it, where they fit into it). I only came across one person who said "no" and a few whose dogs were vicious and had to restrain them - no chance of a photo. Each other person approached had their photo taken.





That was easy. In other cases I procrastinate for maybe 2 minutes then spend ages trying to find the shot, or maybe I spent months preparing the image literally in-mind, then eventually go and take an image as a starting point.


My best projects followed through are the ones I kind of have a vague idea of, then just jump in and take the photo's as they hit me.

[Struan Gray]

I prefer a more exploratory approach, selecting themes from a mass of photographs taken while simply wondering about with a camera, and then, crucially for the definition of the project, refining them with further work and tighter editing.

I tend to take photographs centered about my current interests, so in retrospect the exploratory stage usually appears more directed than I realised at the time. When I was reading a lot about landscape history and woodmanship I ended up gravitating to parts of the local countryside with large numbers of pollards and neglected coppices. As that interest mutated into a sideline in garden history I found myself often photographing tidily clipped and maintained Antoinette versions of that same rural past. Once I realised what I had been doing I filled in some holes in the story with shots made on commission to myself, and went back and refined some photos where the theme of the project was only present as a background niggle.

For me, the most difficult mental task is to maintain a healthy sense of empiricism. I am one of those who finds the clearly-seen world much more fascinating and surprising than my own imagination, and so I try hard not to tie myself down with a shooting list. However, it is so very tempting to head out and collect predetermined photographs: it allows you to leverage the respect still accorded to photojournalism, and it fits nicely with current art obsessions about the primacy of conceptual work; but I at least always end up taking boring photographs. An over-neat packaging of the untidy world sucks all the vitality out of whatever attracted me to the scene in the first place.

So while I agree with the businesslike approach advocated by Bruce, I would also suggest not over-determining your goals from the outset. Photography is about discovery as much as illustration, and allowing yourself to be open to unsuspected aspects of your subject is just as rewarding as nailing the shot you thought of beforehand.

[paulr]

What Struan said. My best advice is to read his post a two or three more times.

In most cases I can tell at a glance when a body of work is the product of a pre-conceived idea. The key word here is "product." The idea becomes a kind of factory that lets the artist churn out predictable merchandise. So often ideas and concepts set artificial bounds for the work. Specifically, they encourage the artist to stay within the bounds of what they already know.

The exploratory approach that Struan talks about doesn't have to be interpreted as wandering aimlessly with a camera. You CAN start with ideas. But the fruitful ideas, I believe, are the ones that take the form of open-ended questions ... ones you won't have any answers to until you've done the work.

When is the project done? It's done when it's done. I know that's a pithy answer. I won't even say "you'll know when it's done," because that hasn't always been my experience. "When is it done?" is one of the questions you'll have to answer through the exploration of doing the work.

[Bruce Watson]

What Mr. Gray said. That's what works for me.

However, the other approaches work well for other people. The thing is, none of us can tell you what works for you. All we can do is tell you what works for us. You do in the end have to make your own decision about your own workflow. Sad, but true.

[Nathan Potter]

Struan and Paul elucidate an approach that I tend to take. Explore photo opportunities first with as much of an open mind as possible. Hopefully what you'll stumble across is a subject matter that reflects your inner emotions and evokes a personnel response that will be manifested in the images that you subsequently take. It will be your unique vision of the subject that will make the images sing.

Don't misinterpret what Bruce says, implying that he may over organize things. I joined him a year ago at a Fine Focus Workshop and thought that he greatly emphasized discovery of subject matter as a first step. Then after discovering a theme I think he would follow with organizing ones' thoughts and carefully proceeding with a portfolio, with the caveats he suggested above. He'll chime in if I don't have this right.

One of my best examples of this discovery approach (and my first) was many years ago. I was roaming the city scape of Worcester MA. with my first, virtually home made 4X5 (and 35mm) when I stumbled into the wreck of the Union train station. Splendid turn of the century interior fixtures were remaining among the ruins of walls and ceilings. I took a few 35 mm shots - several rolls of Plus X. Developed them then sat and pondered for a few months. Finally a theme emerged -"The shambles of Victorian History". I returned with the 4X5 (one 120 mm lens) and exposed Panatomic X over a period of several months fighting the no trespassing signs. I focused on the rubble as contrasted with the victorian glories remaining.The place was blessedly deserted so I could work unencumbered. This is still probably the best stuff I've ever done on a single theme.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Bruce Barlow]

Being the product of a dysfunctional upbringing, I have great trouble doing that last 10%. Therefore, I want to know where I need to be when I'm "done," so that I don't slack off at the end. So I can define that the project needs to produce, say, ten finished (toned, mounted, and spotted) prints. If I make 15, yippee, sorta. I'm more likely to define a follow-on project to make ten more prints. Gotta feel like I've finished something - so I pop a cork at ten.

If my target is ten, and I know that I have a congenital hit rate of 5 out of 100, then I know I need about 200 negatives, and so can schedule the time to make them. Ten prints means three to four days of clear thinking in the darkroom to print them. If I think through all these things, I can have a sense of when I can get it all done.

Yup, subject is paramount, as are learning objectives. Therefore, a project may be (is!) "photograph my rock walls," which encompasses a lotta latitude, cuz I've got a lot of walls. "Snow and Ice," "abstract rocks," "old barns" are also project subjects. No more detail than that.

Learning objectives are designed to develop myself as a photographer. For instance, I'm embarking on an 8x10 portrait project. Learning objective: I get one holder per subject. Two sheets of film, no more. That way, I've got to get good at it, with absolutely no room for technical mistakes. I know I can get decent results in one exposure with 4x5 - done it hundreds of times with Polaroid, so I know it's doable. Other learning objectives: "see better with 355mm lens with 5x7," "Experiment with different portrait backgrounds, and different amounts of negative space" and so forth, that fit within the project, but make me learn something, too.

So if I find a cool downed log near my wall? Photograph it. Are logs worth a project? Maybe. I'll think about it. But it's not the wall project - I won't let my wall scope "creep" to include walls-and-logs. I even have a one-page form I use to think through the details. I have dozens of them filled out in their own notebook, as project ideas come to me.

And then sometimes a picture presents itself that isn't encompassed by any defined project. Do I make it? Of course! Rules are made to be busted, mine included.

I don't think I'm over-structured at all, and long experience with the loose-and-free-artist approach espoused by others here doesn't work for me in my advancing age. Fuzzy thinking leads to fuzzy pictures. Instead, I can wake up on a Saturday morning, decide to spend the morning photographing, decide which project to concentrate on, go to a specific place with specific equipment, and be liberated from all other considerations except making good pictures.

People don't believe it, but "all that structure" ends up being very creatively liberating, because many of the decisions are already made before camera goes on tripod. That said, I have seen my productivity skyrocket, both in quantity and quality, so it works for me. And it's buckets of fun.

Everybody's got to find their own way to work, but mine's the best!!!:D

[Benno Jones]

I don't think I'm over-structured at all, and long experience with the loose-and-free-artist approach espoused by others here doesn't work for me in my advancing age. Fuzzy thinking leads to fuzzy pictures. Instead, I can wake up on a Saturday morning, decide to spend the morning photographing, decide which project to concentrate on, go to a specific place with specific equipment, and be liberated from all other considerations except making good pictures.

People don't believe it, but "all that structure" ends up being very creatively liberating, because many of the decisions are already made before camera goes on tripod. That said, I have seen my productivity skyrocket, both in quantity and quality, so it works for me. And it's buckets of fun.

Everybody's got to find their own way to work, but mine's the best!!!:D


When I was involved in improvisational theatre, there was a saying that "the fewer choices you give an improvisor, the freer s/he becomes". I think that what Bruce is saying here is the photographic equivalent.

[Bruce Watson]

I don't think I'm over-structured at all...

You aren't... for you.

You are... for me.


That said, I have seen my productivity skyrocket, both in quantity and quality, so it works for me.

That's what I'm sayin'. You gotta find what works for you. You can listen to what works for everyone else, but in the end you have to decide what works for you and make that your workflow.

[RichardRitter]

First I book gallery space 12 to 18 months away. Then I follow Bruce Barlow approach.

There is nothing like an incentive to get the work done.

[Colin Graham]

There is nothing like an incentive to get the work done.

This is very true. A little drunk, I once committed to a solo show 3 months away and did not have the first negative for it. A total scramble, but the best work I've done by far. I was so wound up I had a nervous breakdown after opening night. Never felt such a huge empty hole in my life once the project was done. I didn't touch a camera for 2 years. Still, the experience was a blast. I liked working that way, just wish I could handle it better in the long run!

[Struan Gray]

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Douglas Adams


I am probably the last person to consult when it comes to finishing anything, and I agree wholeheartedly with Bruce's approach when the time comes to get your work out in front of people. I certainly wasn't taking a crack at him. That said, I think most photographers would benefit from a conscious examination of their goals and a subconscious freeing of their vision. I know that my own frustrations are centered on what I photograph and how, and not so much on the tasks necessary to produce a finished artifact.

I still think of myself as a beginner, trying to find my own way in a photographic world where detailed prescriptions are handed down on a daily basis. My background in experimental science has taught me how to take advice without being bound by it, but it has also taught me how easily creativity can be boxed in and blind-sided by careerism or an overdeveloped desire for productivity.

My mother-in-law grew up in the Jazz Age, and likes to reminisce dismissively about how the musicians of her youth would earnestly practice their improvisations until they knew them off by heart. I actually think the idea is a good one, within reason. There is no rule stating that free creativity has to be mixed with a bounding framework or structure, but in all the arts it seems to be a fruitful approach. For me however, the photographic world concentrates a tad too much on the framework, and the creative part gets relegated to flabby waffling about the 'v' word.

[paulr]

Being the product of a dysfunctional upbringing, I have great trouble doing that last 10%. Therefore, I want to know where I need to be when I'm "done," so that I don't slack off at the end.

When I was in first grade, I went on a creative bender, writing lots of novels. Maybe "novel" isn't the best word. I didn't know how to spell, and had no grasp of things like characters or stories. But I sat at a typewriter hunting and pecking until a book could be stapled together. The process was this:

1. Decide the name of the book.
2. Decide how many pages it would be.
3. Number the blank pages. Put them in a folder labelled "Not Dun."
4. Label another folder "Dun."
5. Take pages from the Not Dun folder. Fill with words. When full, put in the Dun folder.

My parents were awed by my discipline. And bizarre methods.
My working style has gotten more conventional, but I'd kill for some of that 7 year-old discipline.



People don't believe it, but "all that structure" ends up being very creatively liberating, because many of the decisions are already made before camera goes on tripod. That said, I have seen my productivity skyrocket, both in quantity and quality, so it works for me. And it's buckets of fun.

I believe it. There's nothing wrong with structure. I think people gravitate towards however much structure they need.

There's a big difference between structure (as you're describing it) and artists who start with such a clear idea of what they're going to make that the project is basically a foregone conclusion. In their case, it's as if the idea IS the art ... the work is just an illustration of that idea.

On the other hand it sounds to me like you're approach leaves plenty of room for discovery.

[Hector.Navarro]

thank you all very much for your answers.

I now have a lot of thinking around these ideas and come up with a workflow formula(s) on my own. I am sure that in time I will learn to balance the exploratory & the shooting checklist approach.

I tend to work around themes (city, still life, nature), and most of my photographs are "one offs", which I don't think there is something wrong with it, but I want to make a body of work (a portfolio probably), something more deeper than what I have made.
I have a lot of work to do around this, and it is great!

If anyone else has something to say I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

[Bruce Barlow]

As we say here at Fine Focus Workshops (stolen from Fred Picker): "Don't be mechanical when you should be creative, and vice versa."

My structure has everything to do with the mechanics, and little or nothing to do with creativity. If I read Mr. Gray carefully, we are in complete agreement on that. The more I can structure and decide the mechanics, the less they intrude on the creativity. I'd bet Mr. Watson might even agree, when put this way.

By the way, I used to do improvisations with Jim Belushi, before he got famous. He would cuss me out in front of my dates when I introduced him as "John's brother."

[adrian tyler]

the project is only the path from which you may find that "discoveries" occur, so don't be too stiff in the definition of you project, being able to see the "discoveries" is another thing...