Original digital capture
Images that led to projects
In my Here's a Thought … commentary #2530 Searching For the Thread That Binds, I proposed that a project can grow out of a single image. In fact, sometimes multiple project can grow from the same image. This week will be examples from my Kokoro publication of projects and the thread that binds them into a unified artistic expression.
What I saw that I liked:
We never know where or from what inspiration a project idea might be born. In Beijing, China, we visited the cultural university there. In the above snapshot you can see fellow photographer Doug Ethridge walking in front of the outside wall of the building. I found the tiles on the wall to be visually fascinating, but I had no idea what to do with them. I just fired away and captured 100 or so compositional details in the slate.
The Possible Threads:
Long after we'd returned, I was looking at these images with no idea how to turn them into something expressive. When this happens, I often turn to a strategy I call PBPA — Photography By Pooping Around. Once I had darkened the exposures and pushed the contrast high enough, the patterns in the slate started to remind me of angry ocean waves. The seed of an idea was planted.
The Project:
About this time, a fishing boat that I had photographed in the Dakota Creek Shipyard was lost at sea in the Alaska fishing grounds. All hands perished. I read about this tragedy and immediately had this project spring to life.
This is a great example of the difference between photography to show what something looks like and using photography to fashion and artistic expression. It also illustrates the idea I've often mentioned — gathering image assets so I can assemble something back home in the studio.
Here is a link to the PDF with this project.
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