diptych # 18 (civilized ku # 2427 / ku # 1230) ~ try it, you might like it

Tangledness • click to embiggenA short while back, on the kitchen life # 34 ~ Doubting Thomas entry, wherein I requested small body of work pictures for consideration (re: my magazine project), Colin Griffiths wrote/asked:

The first thing I thought when I read your post was, "Oh, I'd like to be a part of this!", but then as other thoughts come forward my enthusiasm has been confused ..... Here's the problem that I have with your generous invitation: many of us have already seen each other's images as we regularly visit one others blogs. I don't have anything else to offer beyond what's already seen. I would also feel somewhat embarrassed at regurgitating what everyone has already seen ... and concerned that it was seen as indulging in self gratification. Perhaps you could explain/outline what value we might gain from any successful submissions, that allows us to develop as photographers going forward.

my response: Colin / et al, your comment - many of us have already seen each other's images as we regularly visit one others blogs - is fine, as far as it goes but how many others does that include? Double, triple, quadruple digit numbers? Most likely, it's a smallish closed-loop club which, again as far it goes, is OK but is that the limit of your desire for your pictures to be seen / shared?

To be perfectly clear, at this time I am claiming no numbers, re: the viewership of the combined online / print magazine but I believe, over time, it could grow to be quite respectable. As the numbers grow, so can the visits to your little corner of the blog-o-sphere and the feedback / comments, re: your pictures, could help you "develop as a photographer going forward".

And, you can never know where exposure of your pictures might lead to - exhibition opportunities, even more exposure, more publication .... all of which are venues in which your pictures are seen / shared. I mean, I may be wrong about some and there are those with a healthy dose of narcissistic personality disorder, but isn't showing / sharing your pictures one of the reasons we all engage in picture making activity?

And then there's one of the primary reasons for my interest in undertaking this project - viewing pictures in print. I have made my feelings / preferences, re: print vs. on-screen picture viewing, well known. To reiterate, IMO, the on-screen viewing experience is but a pale imitation of the act of viewing a picture(s) in a printed form.

Colin, to be precise and direct, I like viewing your pictures online but only inasmuch as I like viewing them online better than not viewing them at all. I am certain, beyond any doubt, I would enjoy and appreciate those same pictures much much more if I were to view them in printed form. With modern high quality POD printing technology, printed pictures can be produced in a manner which is, for each and every viewer, visually much more true-to-the-makers-intent than can be delivered without the eye fatigue and without all the variables inherent with on-screen viewing.

All of that written and re: your concern about "indulging in self gratification", what's wrong with a little self-gratification now and again? Try it. You might like it.