My Project World

My Project World – why i like projects

I do like a project! Projects provide a photographic anchor and a focus when you are wondering what to photograph. Projects can broaden your photographic horizons and take you on a journey to places you might not otherwise visit. Projects are different from “Club Competition Photography” and the rules that go with; instead you make your own rules. A project gives you a sense of achievement when you have completed it.

My Project World – what is a project? – some examples

Projects can come in all sizes and range from taking a few days to many years. Here are some examples of my projects.

My Project World – long term

Hands: this is a project I started over ten years ago, collecting images of hands sculpted in white marble. Not plaster copies, which just aren’t fine enough. You can see some of these images in my gallery here. The beauty of this project is that the subject matter crops up in places where you may not normally do photography but may visit with family or friends, such as museums, churches, cathedrals. I like to make sure that I understand the provenance of the sculptures , what they are and perhaps what they are intended to symbolise, and who made them; but that is not always possible.

Abstract Architecture: Another long term project which started before and led up to my RPS Associate panel (a project in itself) and carried on with a life of its own as an Instagram feed. Subject matter is everywhere in the built environment though my preference is for modern architecture to be the source of the abstraction.

My Project World – medium term

My panels for the RPS L, A, and F: The L panel and A panel took about a year each, the F quite a lot longer. These were much more intense projects than the long term projects are, with a solid goal and some pressure to meet expectations and standards as well as deadlines. My F panel project went on for seven years as I had an abortive venture with an abstract project in the Visual Art genre before embarking on the Contemporary genre project that got me my Fellowship; there were some serious ups and downs along the way but that makes the achievement at the end so much more fulfilling.

My Project World – Mini Projects

Macro on Dungeness: Some years ago we were staying within easy reach of Dungeness and on the first visit after I had taken the usual shots of the sheds, nets and beached boats I got out my macro lens; it stayed on the camera for the rest of the day. A few days later I went back again and took with me only the macro lens. With that one prime lens I was forced to look harder for subject matter and to find compositions that were less obvious – it was enlightening and really enjoyable.

Fragments of Sidmouth: This was a project with the Sidmouth School of Art, just after lockdown. The images were monochrome architectural vignettes from various Sidmouth buildings, some old, some new. 36 images were arranged in a 4 x 9 grid, and displayed on the Sidmouth School of Art billboard in the East Ham car park. The project took about eight weeks to the point where the composite image was ready to be printed. The billboard is 6 m wide and 3m high. This project features in my new gallery launched last month.

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