Last year around this time I listed my personal projects for 2009 and for 2010 I am going the do the same again on my Blog. I didn’t actually complete every project in 2009 I planned, to but certainly did develop and update the longer term ones.
I believe it is very important for all photographers and especially professional to have a number of personal projects through the year to keep the passion for creating images alive, and this creativity should then permeate into our commissions and commercial work. Even if Photography is purely your hobby having a plan for what you are going to do through the year would I believe be very useful for you.
So to this end I have made a plan of what I intend to do in 2010 to ensure I don't just start things but also finish them.
Marc's Personal Photographic Projects for 2010
My Ongoing Projects:
1. Delamere Forest – A seasonal observation of this lovely woodland area not too far from home. I have now completed all four seasons but there is still a lot more to do to truly show this photographically.
2. Street Photography – this area of my work I possibly need the most discipline in if I am produce worthwhile images. It is good practise in respect of capturing the decisive moment which my wedding photography will benefit from, but unlike wedding photography where I am tuned in to what is likely to happen next the whir of a city is less predictable to me at present.. I have so far shot in Edinburgh, Chester and Liverpool in some cases over a 12 month period including a 4 day visit to New York, but I still don’t feel I am capturing all that I can so in 2010 want to really concentrate on capturing decisive moments of human behaviour rather than just every day ones.
3. Polaroid World – with laments still sounding loud on the passing of instant Polaroid film …. with plans to restart production because a lot of photographers like
myself are tired of clinical look of digital images. This is truly an area of photography that gives me greatest on pleasure the hands on “organic” way of creating an image with or without digital involvement adds to this magic. My Christmas card this year was from a scan of a Polaroid image:
4. Derelict Hotel – The Saxon Cross Hotel. This project started life as a single project which could have been completed in 2009, but I realised whilst this Hotel still stands there is much more that can be done. Every time I visit this hotel it has changed not always massively as decay in self is a slow process, but it is the human marks that appear on it from vandalism which to me creates the greatest interest Also this project has been shot with a mix of Polaroid , Film and Digital capture, my intension being to use the Polaroid images to very much capture the period of hotel which was built in the 70’s by incorporating some shots I have taken on Polaroid into the digital shots which represent the present.
5. Abstracts – This project wasn’t actually planned but evolved throughout 2009, initially I was inspired by another Photographer (and friends) work also in Delamere forest where he used a very abstract approach to capture the atmosphere of this location with great success. I have now used this in quite a few areas of my own work and featured several times within my Blog. It was also most of the work I submitted to get onto the MA Photography course at De Montfort University. I see this now very much as ongoing but needs to have structure so I can create a body of work which is completely abstract but with a meaningful dialogue with the viewer throughout.
6. Clowning – Extremes of emotion depicted by clowns. This started as an outstanding project to depict “a sad clown” as an one off triptych (3 images).However once I had captured this I realised I had ideas for other images that could show extreme happiness, surprise etc, by using a different clown for each. In 2010 I intend to depict “a happy clown” and possibly one other. All will be studio work to isolate the subject but the background will change to reflect the mood.
7. The Twilight Zone – images between dusk and dawn. This project was again one that evolved during 2009. I started through work with my MA and the realisation that that a lot of my favourite images (both my own and other peoples) are taken in this more nocturnal period, where the light is either very low in the sky or due to the lack of most if not all natural light man made light creates a different view of the world thorough the camera, than the human eye will see.
Still to start projects for 2010
1.Classic Camera Collection – As a “born again” lover of film I have started to build up a collect of classic cameras but not to polish and put behind glass but regularly use either as the media to capture an image or to feature in an image as a meaningful prop under the general title of “Icons” meaning not just the camera but the context in which it is depicted. I have barely started this project and there is so much more I can do in this area.
2. Hello Holga – Plastic lens, crude controls, sticky tape to keep out the light with little idea of what you are getting, wonderfully miles away from digital capture. I have a couple of Holga cameras I really need to use this year. (Still not even an example as yet to show here.)
3. Multimedia Creations – including but not inclusively: Polaroid, film, digital, pin hole, flat bed scanner, bean cans if they work and just about anything goes to be as creative as possible. Although I have made a start on this type of work some considerable time ago and have incorporated into the Derelict Hotel Project. I have barely scratched the surface of that could be done and plan look at particular areas I can really use this in 2010.
Labels: marc byram photography photo tips personal projects for 2010 ideas for your personal photographic projects
