civilized ku # 2172-80 ~ holism

Caution ~ NYC, NY • click to embiggen
Capitol bldgs ~ Ottawa, CA • click to embiggen
Tree ~ NYC, NY • click to embiggen
Planes ~ Ottawa, CA • click to embiggen
Trinity ~ NYC, NY • click to embiggen
Curves ~ Ottawa, CA • click to embiggen
Tree ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
E 4th Street ~ NYC, NY • click to embiggen
Red car ~ near Malone, NY • click to embiggenOn civilized ku # 2162 Colin Griffiths wrote (in part):

Over the last few years, I've steered away from "chasing light" ... I've made a determined effort to photographically explore things on my doorstep instead and I've been amazed ... A few years ago, I'd never have believed that I could have found the quantity or variety of beautiful, pleasing and interesting things that I have ... I do believe however, that it's a very personal journey when it comes to trying to share with folk an understanding what we are trying to achieve.

my response: IMO, I do not believe that a "personal journey" is all that difficult "when it comes to trying to share with folk an understanding what we are trying to achieve". In fact, I think it's rather easy.

The "secret" to sharing your personal journey with your intended audience is easy when you present your "journey" as a series of pictures which are intended to be viewed all at once. That is to say, in a book (POD), in a folio, on a web gallery, or, perhaps best of all, on the walls of an actual gallery. Of those 4 possibilities, the first 3 are in a picture makers control. The actual gallery thing, aka: an exhibition, is a decision made by a third party.

In all of those sharing possibilities, a well written (but simple and concise) intro or artist's statement is a must. I have rarely, if ever, encountered any of the above methods of sharing which do not have such a statement/intro. Unless you are intent upon a form of sharing that is a guessing game, communicating to your viewers your picturing intentions and motivations matter.

A case in point - a friend of the wife, who is about as un-artistic as a person can be (the walls of her house are "decorated" with family snapshots, about a zillion dead and stuffed animal trophies, and, to her credit, 1 of my landscape pictures), is given to viewing my POD picture books. To state the least, I am constantly amazed at her almost universal appreciation and like of those books/pictures. In most cases, I get the sense that she is surprised at her appreciation and like of those items, inasmuch as her comments almost always include the statement, "I would never thought of taking pictures of that." I also suspect that, if I were to, from time to time, show her single prints of the same work, her response would be very different.

IMO, no matter how prolific and promiscuous one's picture making might be, treating and sharing them in a holistic* manner is the best way, if not the only way, to go.

*holism: the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts.