the life in my kitchen ~ IMO, good picture making is about focus
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 09:30AM ;)
life in my kitchen ~ pictures made in my kitchen / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenA short while back I mentioned that I intended to begin the long process of editing and organizing (into categories) the nearly 4,000 pictures in my "finals" folder. Well, the process has begun and the first category is life in my kitchen, a category which does not include my decay and disgust pictures which were also made in my kitchen.
I tackled this category first because I figured it to be: 1) easy to define and identify, and 2) not overwhelming, number of pictures wise. As it turned out, my figuring was correct. However, what I did not figure on is how impressed I would be (no serving of humble pie for me, thank you very much) with the pictures once they could be viewed as a cohesive body of work.
IMO, part of that surprise derived from the fact that the pictures were made over a period of 3-4+ years without the conscious intent of creating an organized / cohesive body of work. Truth be told, I just wasn't thinking of it in that manner. So, in a kind of after-the-fact awakening, it was a bit of surprise and a delight to view the pictures in the altogether.
Bodies of work are, IMO, the vehicle which allows a viewer to immerse him/herself in a special/unique world created by a picture maker. In a well executed body of work, a picture maker's vision should be rather obvious to all but the visually and cortically subilluminated, aka: dimwits. Dimwited or not, liking a particular body of work, no matter how well executed, is always a matter of viewer taste.
A well executed body of work should evince a consistent visual style and technique. Bouncing around from one focal length lens to another, mixing high contrast prints with low contrast prints or BW prints with color prints, and even mixing prints formats - say, squares with rectangles - are all are antithetical to the creation of and perception of a cohesive body of work.
A well executed body of work should also be consistent, re: the pictured referents - both actual and implied. That is to say, there should be an overarching umbrella under which body of work is created and presented. That umbrella can be narrowly focused, as in a body of work comprised exclusively of pictures of dead chickens, or, it could be more broadly defined, but nevertheless still focused, body of work comprised of pictures of chickens going about their daily business - eating, sleeping, nesting, pecking, crapping, and so on. Either approach represents a valid umbrella which can be defined as a cohesive body of work.
While the life in my kitchen was not created from the get-go as an intended body of work, rather it emerged organically from my ongoing desire to picture my life, I do have a number of ongoing bodies of work being created from pre-focused intents. As examples, decay & disgust, single women, life in pictures, art conveys / transports / reflects, and life without the APA are all tightly focused bodies of work. Needless to state, I enjoy keeping a number balls in the air.
All of that said, I did not expect the life in my kitchen work to be the first of the folios I would be making to circulate to galleries. However, that is exactly what I intend to do - ain't life full of surprises?
A question: Do any of you give any thought to making focused bodies of work?
FYI & BTW, a very good example of multiple focused bodies of work created by a single picture maker can be viewed HERE. I like them all but I am especially partial to the Windows work.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: John Linn asked: "Will life in my kitchen be available for online viewing?
my response: Yes, once I get it edited down to a more manageable number of pictures.
Reader Comments (10)
Who needs a studio when you have a kitchen?
Will life in my kitchen be available for online viewing?
Actually no. At 48 I'm still too young :)
In general I take what I can get. Some days I have no more than a few minutes while being "on the run" for work, and then I simply can't afford to be picky.
I certainly don't stick to a well defined style. You do. If I take any two images you made in the last few years of similar subjects, chances are high that they will not fall apart as a series.
I don't work that way. Maybe I will one time in the future, but not now. I could imagine keeping a few series running, just like you do, and I can imagine that adhering to a stricter style could even be interesting. So far I haven't done anything like that.
And just to make sure: I also don't feel bad about it :D
I really like what you do though. Maybe this is something that's more enjoyable for some people than for others?
And, btw, how long did it take you to arrange those windows?
(meta, I posing from my desktop to check out what I call the spelling test thingie.)
Andreas, if you were to look at your own catalog, you might find bodies of work you didn't realize you have, maybe?
And then there are some photographers who categorically deny that they do bodies of work ("I don't work that way") and others who only do bodies of work.
Well that was fun, I think it's worse on the desktop as in harder to read.
Damn bicycles :)
Yes, I know, there are some, but still they are not as strictly within one style as Mark's images.
Cool.
What are the main reason(s) for a photo to be in your "finals" folder?
Where's "wife in my kitchen?"
It's pretty cool that your wife looks at your blog. My wife might only see my blog if she happens in the room while I am posting.
Good job wife!
I'm somewhere between you and Andreas, I have a couple of themes that I'm working on, but I don't confine myself to quite as strict a set of constraints as you do. You'd probably say that it shows, but I'm not so sure that it matters so much unless the viewer is someone to whom it matters. I spend my professional life immersed in designing, implementing and monitoring management systems and manufacturing processes so I have a very good understanding of precision, conformity, best practices and the need for homogeneity. That said, I find it a welcome relief to be able to break out of that modus operandi in my creative pursuits to some degree.