We had a meeting of the workshop members. I like the meetings because it’s nice to see progress within each member and within myself. One of the biggest request I get is editing and sequencing. Most approach that on a project basis and I don’t disagree with that but I feel the project is ones life, not a certain defined mission. Of course your mileage will vary but. During the course of your life, and hopefully a long one, if you see your work and what it means and turns int, can and will feed you always. Taking the approach of a mission or project, dissects a certain portion and kinda ignores that work before or after. So we were kicking this around and a few members are getting ready to make an exhibition. I am very excited and supportive about anything the members set out to do and do.

I bring all this up because having a plan for your work and exhibitions is all important. You need to be focused at all times and if not, when you meet the gallery director or curator or whomever will be checking out your work, will not check out your work. Being focused requires being organized. So I used to suggest that we layout our work and see it as a map. I felt this way for decades. Then Suzanne mentioned to me that it seems like a map is implying that it starts someplace and goes someplace. Well, yeah, isn’t that the purpose? Well, I am not one to argue with one that is so clearly defined that she can convince me to go off the map and see things as live and the journey it presents us and not flat with a known end in sight.

So, Suzanne is correct and I change my way of thinking and perhaps living.

See, your work is like a tree. It’s like a tree because you start at the trunk and as you learn and love and produce your work and your life, the branches start to come out and in a 3 dimensional manner. you can see direction and progress and even the fruits of your efforts. A map will eventually demand a final destination. A tree will outlive us and that is the same as our work. Maybe I am a hopeless romantic and maybe I believe in magic and maybe I believe in love. truth is I do and stand proud to admit it. If I think about my tree of life and work, I can easily start to see branches about different interest and methods and desires and finished projects all over. I see things growing and living and surviving and I see and feel that this tree will outlive me and I want  to pay respect to it as it shows the love and respect we share together.

So, organizing your work becomes less tedious and more fruitful because you now have direction, means, results that are mandatory  for after process presentation. When I am charged with the duty to sort out peoples work, the first thing I ask is to have the work in a chronological order. If you think about this, makes perfect sense. Start at the trunk and see how thoughts and INTENT has grown in a manner that reflects the shooters state of mind thru a period of time. This isn’t the only way to work but it’s the best way to get started on another method.

So next week this small group will meet and each will sort ot the 2 people work that are working on an exhibition. This is where it gets interesting.

See’ there will be 9 members and 2 will present the work. There should be about 30 prints from each of the two. So, the 2 are eliminated from the first draft. I am eliminated from it also. That leaves 6 different POV, (point of views) for the work. Each member will edit and select the prints and then sequence the edit and… then explain the reasoning behind the process they just did.  If you don’t think this opens up a conversation about vision and intent, well my friends…..

One of the best and most productive means of finding your photos out there is to see and understand from where they came from. Seeing your tree of life and being able to understand the roots and trunk and limbs, shows you the path to self discovery. The the next part of the process is the part of standing for your work.

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

I’ll be back in a few daze and the story of the Fuji X-Pro2 vs the X100F is being sorted out.