Revisiting Washington Small Towns project
I’m taking another class through the International Center of Photography, this one is about making photo books. I love books, and the idea of making one seems possible, though daunting.
It is so fun to see what other photographers are doing, and how they see and think. I miss that about school, but going back to school right now seems like both the best and worst idea I can think of. So for now, classes are the right balance of fun and serious, though if I learned anything from Isle of the Dead, it’s that I should have more fun, and be less serious.
Because my Small Towns project is my largest body of work it seemed like a good choice, though kind of large and messy and unfocussed. The project started out as a way to get off island and away from my ex, and to have a photo project instead of just wishing I had some idea what to photograph. I thought at some point the project would find itself and be more concise and easier to work with, but it kept expanding once activated and never stopped. I stopped primary photography on it but it’s never stopped being something I think about and try to explain to myself, or see as something smaller than what it is.
Life, and people, and towns, and systems are complicated, and there is no real way to flatten it out and make sense of it, other than on a map. The stories still interest me, I still want to know more.
So I’m looking at all of these photos over and over and seeing a lot about them, and about me. And I still have no clue what to do with it. But!! I’m in the class, so I will see where it takes me. I keep hearing from so many photographers that what they learned in grad school was to follow the pictures, so I’m trying.
It can be hard to see what is in front of you, especially with a picture. Different days they are different ways. I’m different ways, the context shifts, photos I love seem dull sometimes, or I look at all the photos and they seem too simple.
One of the things I like about books is that you can come back to them. Another thing is that unlike photos in a gallery, you can look at them alone. But as a photographer, I like that you can put things together in different ways, make connections, break up a thought, create tension, space…it reminds me of making films/videos (I still think of it all as film, since in film school I shot film, but these days I do video, but saying video feels weird even though it’s now true, and film can mean motion picture film or photography with film rather than digital which is trendy and so on) which used to be my one true love.
