(diptych) places to sit # 27-28 ~ overload limits
Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 09:28AM 
diner stools / Parkway Diner ~ Burlington, VT • click to embiggenEither one of these pictures, if not both, could have been in the PLACES TO SIT book/ selects. Unfortunately, these pictures were made after the book was sent to the POD book printer service. The single stool picture would have made a nice cover picture, better / "cleaner" than the ice cream parlor window one used. I would have moved that picture to inside the book and paired it with another recent places to sit picture.
Therein lies the issue with an ingoing body of work ... there are always, unless a series moratorium is declared, additional pictures to be made. While those pictures may be added to a folio of prints, they can not be added to a book without reprinting it. Not impossible but it is somewhat expensive.
However, that's not the only issue. I like to limit my bodies of work folio prints and the corresponding book to 20 images, give or take a very few. IMO, any more than that number and the folio / book moves into the overkill zone, picture viewing attention span wise, and can result in a diminished impression about the body of work by boring or overloading the viewer.
Consequently, an ongoing body of work needs constant attention, editing wise, to keep the number of images out of the picture viewing fatigue / danger zone. That doesn't necessarily mean that one might not have 30, 40, or more pictures that are equally deserving of folio / book inclusion. It just means keeping one's chosen presentation to reasonable number of pictures.
Reader Comments (3)
Actually, the Parkway is in South Burlington, a separate entity since 1865, when the village of Burlington was incorporated as a city. Nice photos!
Hey Mark, do you take the ferry to Burlington from Port Kent? Have you pictured that mode of transportation? I tried when we got off the train there years ago...
Hey Mark, do you take the ferry to Burlington from Port Kent? Have you pictured that mode of transportation? I tried when we got off the train there years ago...