Here’s a little different take on practicing in public from worldwide street photographers via Alex Coghe. The issues raised by having instant access to captured images and easy publication to the world seem to run counter to traditional concepts of artistry. I’ve argued that these old concepts are largely an illusion- artists have always tended to form communities for support and inspiration. Our means are different being instant and distributed. Same world, different methods.
Was working slowly in the film world of benefit? I doubt it. One just tended to do more editing in process because of the cost in time and money of film, processing and printing. But I still ended up with a hundred or so candidate images to chose two or three to spend an afternoon or a few days with in the darkroom. They went into a folder then, maybe to be submitted to a show or shown to my circle of friends and fellows.That was the recognition such as it was. And most of the comments were no different from the Flickr page- nice capture.
Can one complain about working without recognition? I see my work as inconsistent and occasional. I’m an amateur in the traditional sense, since I don’t depend on photography for income. I have a goal of bringing my work into local spaces because I think the process of printing and getting my work shown somewhere would be rewarding.
This image was for myself primarily and happily shared with my small audience. This is the 10th image in this series and I think I’m honing in on the idea of black and white or desaturated images that emphasize light and formal structure of my usual style. I’m practicing in public, hoping to return to the best of these images after I’ve explored the ideas a bit.
