Projects are like finding a new friend.
A relationship which can be great at the start with perhaps a difficult middle period and then a common understanding of limitations and finally acceptance. We often have high hopes for new work at the beginning so what seems initially interesting then becomes less so once we gain some objectivity through time. Still our lockdown projects are part of who we are so I always allow time to look back on them with affection. Take time to reflect on your previous work, enjoy looking at the images and learn from them.
Make your lockdown projects locally and concentrate on one geographical area.
This is not the only thing you should do but it’s a good one. Ideally as you evolve both personally and as a photographer, you’ll approach it in different ways revealing many facets over time. Learn to embrace the more mundane and ordinary at first glance. It can sometimes take quite an effort to overcome your instincts but the advantage is you can make it yours. Check out John Gossage’s The Pond. Here you can see a highly artistic mind at play delighting in the small details. The images are mostly grey and of nondescript places but you’ll get the strong sense that he’s in control of the frame, and of course he had the central idea in the first place which is the tough part.
Choose something that is non iconic and perhaps from the outset not easy to photograph. Think with intent about what the right approach is for it. This may be specific and unique to each project.
The first is an absolute must in my book. Icons can still be on your agenda but understand for you why they are. Can you still personalise the image-making. Choosing a photographically challenging location is partly for the masochists among us. It requires being aware of and working around our ‘baggage’; the need to always get a photo and the kind of image we think we should get, both of which we should keep in check, although not dismiss. Pressure is good and images which relate to our project plan are also good but not at the expense of enjoying the process of seeing. You need to balance looking and seeing.
Have more than one project on the go. The dips and slack in one will be offset by the other(s).
This allows a natural flow around blocks and short attention spans. I have found this to keep the demons at bay, if like me you need to have photography as a constant companion. Also lockdown projects over a sustained period will allow some reflective time which will feed back into time on location. It’s really not a sprint. The best work viewed by people who can articulate why they think it is, more often is produced over months solidly in the field or over years of occasional trips.
Seek visual consistency throughout a project.
I can get to know more about a photographer through their image selection and sequence building. I’m interested in how they see. Consistency in framing reinforces that understanding. The subjects can vary as can the location but still ‘that’ frame on the world shines through. Choosing a variety of formats, aspect ratios and lens choice within one project can make this more difficult, so simplify your set-up and approach. Then in another project you can change these to something else. Occasionally in sequences by photographers I see many visual ideas all going off in different directions. It’s a personal challenge to filter these down, to develop fewer but in more depth. One benefit of formal study is mentoring which can help feedback and facilitate this self critiquing.
What makes a good amateur photographer.
During my 10 years both guiding and tutoring nearly 500 workshop guests I’ve understood that the more inquisitive and open the individual is to listening to new ideas and absorbing these, the more interesting photographs are made. Begin to search out image makers for reference and take a course with someone whose not in your knowledge orbit who offers to you, a new way of seeing. Creating a personal project, one that gives you pleasure and you have a strong connection with, is the first stage. From there, you can choose to open this up to a wider audience including peers. To do this successfully I would suggest contextualising your work and understanding where it sits alongside similar image making. Landscape images are ubiquitous of course and without human interest they need to offer form as mentioned. To do that you need to continually personally strive to push the combination of composition and subject in new directions.
Concept and projection.
Ideas are the life blood of the art world and concepts are an inherent part of this. But a football coach’s tactical plan will work only as far as the other team’s interference with it. A successful concept or project formed away from the field will need to evolve and develop once up and running. Too often newly qualified artists or photographers have an acute awareness of concepts, but with imagery that feels contrived and lacking exciting form; it’s not form first but an intellectual rationale that shines through. More typically I see photographs where the photographer has imbued an image with meaning generated via feelings or memory that has been concocted post location and one that the image does not communicate except in their own mind’s eye. The tension between achieving some kind of concept whilst maintaining interesting form is the preserve of great photography.
When one project seems to be drawing to a close begin a new one.
It’s really important to offset the feeling of impending emptiness through having nothing to photograph. If you’re working on one or two projects then start to look for a third. Even having the idea that this will become a reality, without immediate access will help to offset any gloom. Hope is worth a lot. We can mull over possibilities in our mind. Eventually, it’s almost certain the project produced will bear little relation to what you imagined, which is fine.