How To Create A Body Of Work

This page is a summary of how I’ve approached creating a comprehensive, coherent body of work. This is not gospel. It’s simply my way of working and expounding on what I’ve learned over the past 30 years of making photographs and telling stories. Take from it what you can. Leave the rest.

I’ve used my blog to deconstruct my current project, “In the Shadow of Sun Mountain: The Psychology of Othering and the Origins of Evil”. I started the project in 2021 and share what I’m doing and why at least a few times each week. The idea is to allow people access to the way I work and how I think about creating a body of work. Below, you will find an outline of how I work. This is always open to change; like everything in art, inspiration comes in various forms and at different times. I include all of it; anything that I find relevant to the work, I share.

WHERE TO START

The place to start with something like this is at the very beginning. I always say, “first things first, in that order”.

STEP ONE: DEFINING A BODY OF WORK
If you’re reading this, I’m confident that you’ve struggled with how to start working on a photographic, art-based, project. And what I mean by that is a comprehensive body of work that is cohesive, coherent, and very much connected to you. A body of work that is an honest, and authentic examination and exploration of something that you are preoccupied with. Something that you feel compelled to make photographs about. 

STEP TWO: WHAT’S THE WORK ABOUT?
It starts with a clear idea of the general topic. What I call the “30,000-foot view”. In the beginning, it doesn’t have to be detailed or exhaustive. Over time, you’ll drill into the details and flesh out the specifics. This is a long process. It’s not an event that happens overnight, in a week, or even in a month. You will find, as you do research, you’ll have small epiphanies, little nuggets of enlightenment that reveal themselves to you about your chosen topic. It’s important to write these ideas and inspirations down in a journal or diary. It’s easy to forget things; document them. A lot of them will become valuable pieces of the puzzle. It’s like gathering clues over a long period of time to solve a mystery. The mystery of what’s compelling you to make work about your topic of interest. 

STEP THREE: WHAT ARE THE RESOURCES FOR YOUR WORK?
This is a very crucial part of the process. I recommend that you consume as much information as you can about your subject matter. And go much farther than just your subject matter, go to the “ancillary places”. Study and research topics that are related to yours and beyond. This will feed and nurture your ideas about what you want to do. It will give you a larger and broader understanding of your subject matter and you as a person.

As photographers, we tend to isolate our studies to only photography. I think that is very limiting. You need to look at all kinds of artwork in all different mediums. You need to read about science, philosophy, politics, history, et alia. This is what a liberal arts education is supposed to provide. Very few people ever get it or understand its purpose. This is where it will pay off if, in fact, you do have an education. 

Whether you have an undergraduate degree or not, it’s time to employ the skills of that type of learning. Find all of the resources you can and read, watch, listen, study, and write about all of them. I would recommend that you create a bibliography of them. Cite what you find most interesting and relevant and document where it came from. Go back to it often, review, update, and add to it on a regular basis. This will be an important resource for your project. 

STEP FOUR: WRITING AN ARTIST’S STATEMENT
We’re on step four, and we haven’t even picked up a camera yet! This should give you an idea of what this journey is about. Yes, you can approach it from the other side, making images first and then trying to put them into a narrative. To me, that’s kind of backward. You need a “roadmap” to work from—a destination to “drive” to—which is why a statement about your work is so crucial. Yes, it’s for the viewers, but in the beginning, it’s exclusively for you. It will guide you, inform you, and constantly change your approach to the work. I’ve written several statements over the past three decades. And I’m currently working on a new statement for my latest project.