HOW DO YOU SELECT PHOTOGRAPHS?
What standards do you employ to select photographs for a body of work? And what distinguishes the images you select as significant or meaningful? Believe it or not, some photographers have never given these questions much consideration. “I pick what looks good!” or “I pick what sells!” That’s about as far as they go. Some never even think about making a body of work. They simply make “one-off” images and call them good.
For the storytellers: the narrative is only as strong as the visuals you choose to portray. Therefore, these are important questions to ponder. If you don't carefully choose images using criteria that complement the narrative, you’ll disrupt the flow—like hitting a sour note in music. So, how do you go about doing that?
TIME
The first thing you need is time, and a lot of it. Time to read, research, think and create. You need time to connect the dots in regard to your pictures and educate yourself about the deeper and more profound ideas around the work. This doesn’t happen in a week or two. This process can take years.
I know this turns a lot of people off. It’s anathema to the world we live in today. Few people are going to put the time in to make it work. However, for those few, the reward will be life-changing.
WORK & PRODUCTION
You will fail more than you’ll succeed. That’s a good thing. It will make you appreciate the successful pictures even more. They are a rare and wonderful thing. If you do it right, the process will keep you humble and grateful. I believe you need those attributes to make good work.
You need to make a lot of photographs, which also requires a lot of time. I’m not talking in digital photography terms or numbers. However, you need to make the work in order to see it. If you can’t see it, you can’t select it or reject it. Have you heard that saying, “You can’t learn to drive in a parked car”? Make the photographs!
Another type of time is a timeline, or how long it takes you to complete a body of work. If it takes months or even years, that's fine. Don't put a timeline on your project. Let it reveal itself organically. Give every photograph you make your undivided attention. As I said above, spend time researching, reading, watching, observing, thinking, and considering a lot of different ideas. Make a lot of photographs of any ideas that you think might work. And make some photographs of ideas that you don't think will work, too. You might be surprised. It’s important to leave some serendipity in this process, at least a little bit.
Push yourself. Forget about “rules” or what you think people will like or not like. That’s all a waste of time. Don’t let any of that rent space in your head. Don’t get caught in the trap of trying to please people. This is your work, your ideas. Stay focused (no pun) and stay the course!
Don't fret over the pictures as you make them; there’s plenty of time for that later. To date, I've created about 120 negatives for my project ("In the Shadow of Sun Mountain.") I've only been working on it for about a year. It sounds like a lot, but in reality, it's only about 2.5 negatives per week.
I'll probably end up with about 200 negatives when the project is completed. That number is based on the general categories I’ve selected for the work. Flora, landscapes, and objects. To get a sufficient number of photographs to make a body of work, I would need roughly 65 negatives from each area. If I select 30–40 images for the final body of work (prints), that would mean I'm only using 15%–20% of the (roughly) 200 negatives. Keep in mind that this is only a guideline and is subject to change.
You’ll know when you’ve completed the work. It will be apparent. I can’t give you any specifics, but I can tell you that you’ll know. If you’ve completed visually, what you’ve used words to describe, and they complement and complete one another, you’re finished.
EXPERIMENTATION
I try to experiment as much as possible while I’m making the work. Yes, I have my “roadmap” and that gives me my general direction, but I’m still working out the aesthetic. To me, that means trying new compositions, lighting, lenses, and printing methods. I'll try new papers, new toners, and even new processes. The only caveat here is that you don't want to get caught up in the technical minutia. You'll end up being a process photographer, not an artist. Chiang Kai-shek said, "We become what we do." It’s important to remember that.
Try to find what processes or techniques best suit your story. You want the viewer to "experience" the work and have context for what you're trying to do. That makes a big difference in the success of the photographs. Don’t cling to one process during the experimental phase. Try things. Figure things out. You’ll end up settling on a way to work that makes sense for your project, and you’ll have good reasons for using it.
EVALUATION
Critique your work. Be critical, realistic, and reasonable. You’ll see, as you go through this process, there are so many variables to making good pictures that fit into the story. What your objective should be is to group the images that immediately stand out. Eliminate the images that you feel don’t work straight away. Do the big, broad sweep as quickly as you can. You can always reconsider the images you put aside later. I’ve found that when I revisit images that I thought didn’t work a few weeks or months later, they take on a new power or influence. Images that I thought were “duds” now have new life in relation to the other work. Remember, this should be a comprehensive body of work; images working together to tell the story. Think of each image as a word or sentence—one flowing into the next. It should look right, feel right and support your narrative. And it should convey power and emotion when viewed as a whole.
Test strip from a Calotype (paper negative).