SAMPLER ~ it all hangs together

Bodies of Work - A Sampler book spread ~ • click to embiggen

In a recent entry on LENSCRATCH - 2105 - In the Rear View Mirror, Aline Smithson wrote:

I’m beginning to think there has to be a big seismic shift in how we make and present work. Most photographers have been working in the 20+-image project template, which ultimately constrains creativity. I certainly understand how the process of revisiting an idea over time in a specific way makes for a meaningful body of work, but now it’s become the norm, and to be honest, it’s gotten a bit stale. It’s important to consider creativity and these templates don’t always allow for it. In my opinion, that may be one reason why the photo book has become so important as it allows for new ways of considering photographic art. I’ve looked at hundreds of portfolios this year, between various reviews, Lenscratch, and jurying Critical Mass and I think it’s time to step away from the well-worn path to success.

The more I work on organizing my pictures for making POD books - specifically 2015 ~ The Year In Review and Bodies of Work ~ A Sampler - in which I mix pictures from my separate bodies of work - the more I am inclined to agree with Aline Smithson's idea.

Not that I haven't previously thought about the idea - if you jump into The Landscapist Way-Back Machine and dial in 11:28 AM, January 11, 2008, you will find an entry titled Discursive Promiscuity. If you look at the picture which accompanies the entry and then look at the intro page to Bodies of Work ~ A Sampler, you most likely can deduce the direction I am headed toward in the presentation of my pictures.

The difference between the Bodies of Work ~ A Sampler and the The Adirondacks in the Age of Discursive Promiscuity presentations is that the former consists of 15 pictures with diverse referents pulled from separate bodies of work while the latter consists of pictures with the same thematic referent. Both presentations work for me inasmuch as either one works quite well under the idea of Discursive Promiscuity. Although, the BoW sampler is such more discursive than the Adks itAoDP.

In yesterday's entry, I wrote about what I thought might provide a reasonable answer to the question of what happens to my pictures after I have gone on to that big photography club in the sky. While I believe the idea of leaving behind 20+/- POD books of my various bodies of work is a good idea, legacy wise, the more I think about leaving behind a series of large Discursive Promiscuity prints I am coming to believe that presentation would truly represent my picturing M.O. or, as some might called it, my vision.

The simple fact of the matter is that my vision is truly discursive and incredibly promiscuous. While I have many separate and disparate bodies of work, with only a couple of exceptions those bodies of work were created as after-the-fact exercises by the mining of related-referent pictures from the large and getting larger collection/results of my discursively promiscuous picturing predilections.

After decades of making pictures, while I still believe that thematic bodies of work are all well and good, I have finally come to the conclusion that making pictures which digress from referent to referent (aka: discursive) and which seem to demonstrate an undiscriminating or unselective (aka: promiscuous) approach to picture making is what I do.