Marc Byram Photography - Photo Tips Blog: New Personal Projects...

Yesterday was the last day of my current exhibition and thank you to all of you who made it along it was really great meeting with you all.

One of the questions I was asked yesterday also got me thinking, a good friend and Blog reader had notice that for 2011 unlike previous years I hadn’t published a list of my planned personal projects. The reason in part for this is that from the end of 2010 until now my time has been spent planning and bringing together the current exhibition with a good 2-3 years of personal projects being incorporated together for the first time. Nevertheless the reason for publishing personal project lists was to ensure if I broadcast them I was also see the majority of them through, so by not listing 2011 there was the potential to have a bit of desert of creativity for this year whilst busying myself promoting my exhibited work. So I am very pleased to have been asked this question and will rectify this right now with my list 2011:

1. There are still some ongoing projects such as the seasonal changes within Delamere Forest, and there is planned visit there early tomorrow morning, and this will mean trying to visit the same area in different ways which will be an exercise to some extent in seeing things differently. For me tomorrow that will be producing images solely with pinhole and zone plate photography.

Here is an example image taken today by way of experimentation ahead of tomorrow:

The hazy very soft focus look is created using a zone plate and the second distinctive look is a pin hole image, I like both for very different reasons, but think the zone plate dreamy image is what I am looking for with the forest tomorrow.

2. The use of mixed composites to create images still hasn’t been fully explored by me and may not be now be fully done until 2012, but I do wish to keep exploring the opportunities that instant film offers me including lifting emulsions etc, so to some extend the overall idea of mixed composites is being extend in this area, this is basically my search of what I can only describe as an “organic” feel to an image.

3. There are two new projects for 2011 and these have been in the back of mind for sometime conceptually:

The first is a body of work to be entitled “Between” which I have a very clear focus on how it will develop and will be detailing this in more detail in the future. However for now here is one image created with a pinhole camera to give you an idea:

The second will be need to develop further as I start to bring it together, it will be based totally on a visual interpretation and simplicity what I am currently thinking of as the “Zen of Photography”. This has come about really after a comment I have made a few times now saying that as an artist “words” are not my first language, to me images are visual and do not require words to describe them. There also at present appears to be a popular approach of giving an image a bold title in the hope that it says something …. to me personally the title serves only as distraction.

I always encourage others to share their personal project work ideas as it serves to inspire others whilst motivating the list owner to complete what they set out to achieve.