Meanderings of a thoughtful mind

I'm often asked what kind of photography I enjoy the most, and then either asked if that's my favorite kind of photography to shoot, why my photography doesn't look like that, or it's just assumed that what I enjoy most from other people's work must be precisely what I enjoy most out of my own.

Oddly, or perhaps not oddly at all, what I most enjoy shooting and what I most enjoy viewing of other peoples work are two completely different types of photography.

There's something that draws me to the kind of photography I enjoy most. There's an artistic balance, despite on occasion there being an archaic colloboration of subject matter, there's a balance through the process and presentation that counters, amplifies, and speaks to the world in it's own very unique way. There may be a use of subject symetry, or chemical/development symetry, some times it's an asymetry of subject that's balanced by a asymetry in the process that proves the balance and delivers the piece to me as a viewer. Yes I have a great appreciation for evenly exposed prints, warm tones, smooth, pristine detail, and perfectly precise exposure and development.

The clutch in my own process though is driven less by my out-product from exposure through development and delivery as much as it's driven by the subtleties in the development and delivery. Small quirks in some processes deliver challenging visual cues in a photograph that are often hard to duplicate, but there's a sudden and permanent rush as one discovers a quirk, recreates it, learns it, and later is able to recreate it and manipulate it at will to create the desired process one desires.

My own meandering process began in my basic photography class in college. In high school I'd worked with a lesser knowledge in the processes of a classical photograph, between my high school photography classes and my yearbook classes (my senior year I was the photography editor and during my time my staff and I won several awards through our publisher in how we developed our yearbook as well as several individuals receiving awards themselves, I was fortunate enough to receive one in photography competing against 27 other schools), my basic photography course in college re-ignited that flame, re-couped to where I was at in high school, then I discovered an aspect in photography I hadn't delved in to before. My instructor though a classical photographer by heart was engaging enough to encourage me to develop and explore my skill in abstract photography and alternative processes, in time I would take more classes and devote more time and energy, and ultimately (what at the time was) a lot of money in to so many art projects I've many times over lost track of them in 4 years majoring in photography.

Other teachers explored printing techniques, some processes were very simple to master, others were very expensive to master. One such technique of the first was Salt Prints. For me they were simple, consistent and one of the easiest alternative forms of printing I've ever experienced. My entire final project one class was in that form, it had 8 images, I used 9 prints to get those 8 images. Sadly a fellow student went through dozens of pages of paper only to be happy with 2-3 images, using the same process. She couldn't discover what she'd done wrong, why the process wouldn't work. It was simple. I had watched as she'd applied her immulsion to the empty paper, it was shoddy at best, had no rythm, and she was inconsistent in her application. Later she didn't let it dry properly, until someone mentioned she really needed to if she wanted it to work properly. Lastly her printing had no consistency, she computed her math for exposure all wrong, not just on her prints but on printing her negatives (we were using digital prints, she provided no contrast screen on her prints which caused them to be dull, combined with underexposing she had very light and dull images) as well. Sadly even her development was all wrong, she kept no timer, gave no consideration for the process ensuing and made the images "develop" in the time frame she dictated rather than dictating her schedule revolve around the time frame the images needed in their development processes.

My happiest time printing was when I had taken notes wrong on a process, completely did the project wrong that we'd been assigned, but in my arrogant pride kept trying to get a print to work I'd been fighting with for days. Ultimately before the project was due I had succeeded with developing a new process in displaying imagery, creating a new medium with which to display photographs, allowing images, lighting and form to combine to create new forms of art in their own category. Oddly, the process allows images to also become sculpture, and when used properly sculpture becomes an additional attribute of the photography rather than photography being on a sculpture as an attribute of the sculpture.

Yes, it's true. There's no small difference in what I like viewing in other peoples work as opposed to what I like creating myself. Ultimately, I'm convinced knowing what kind of photography I enjoy admiring frees me to create my own artwork in other realms of the broad expanse that photography has become. My only admonition to you, is to find out why you like certain artworks, what about them makes them unique to your taste in art, and learn how to define it. I am convinced understanding why you like something allows you to understand more of the innerworkings of your own self, and only by knowing yourself can you appreciate who you are, and who you want to become.