The song of a single...or the album of a group?
Darkness
In the world that we currently live in, where we are literally inundated with visual imagery on a daily basis, I sometimes ask myself the question of, what would I like to achieve with my photography. Am I creating images to be swiped past rapidly, or am I creating (or hope to create) images that people want to stop and really look at. Taking a few minutes to actually stope to take in a photo seems like such a thing of the past. This is a question that I’m asking myself is one where the answer has probably changed over time, and may continue to change. I love that we now live in a visual world because I love the visual narrative, but sometimes I crave having more. I crave the album over just the song. I crave getting lost in the world that these images can take me.
What do I mean by this,? In my 24+ years of photography, I have a handful (yes only a handful) that are SO memorable to me that they earn a spot on my wall and a space in my memory as one that I will truly never forget. These are photos that most likely hit me in the gut when I first saw them, and continue to move me each time I see them. I may not even be able to explain why it hits me hard, it is just an instinctual thing. I’m not saying that I don’t like a lot of the photos that I have taken over the years, not at all, I love a BUNCH of them, but I’m talking truly show stoppers (show stoppers in my book anyway).
So where does the single song versus the album come in? I think for myself, it is almost more difficult to get that ONE image that just stops you in your tracks, but, when I have a series of images, It becomes a whole story, a whole album. Each image MUST still play it’s part in the big picture, it must still have impact and importance, but I am wanting to see a set of images, a body of work, that can lead me along and make me feel a broader connection.
Keeping in mind that I shoot portraits as a job, but I also shoot a variety of landscape, people in my own world, and other things that signify importance in my life or my journey, I find that this crosses both paths. When I have a portrait session, I am the photographer that will provide way more than a handful of images. I want my clients to have any images in their hands that are singing the collective songs of their families, or their children. Yes there may be a few stand out/stand alone images, but overall I think the value in what I provide, is the album of the child or couple or family. I even struggle when people ask me for just “a few shots”. I get very uncomfortable because whereas yes, I can do that, it doesn’t feel like it fits my purpose. Weird? Maybe…but its a discovery I realize over and over.
So here we are, my cover image is to me, one of my more favorite images I have taken in a long time. I am proud of it, it has it’s own voice and it’s own individual song. However, I know that there are more songs that belong on the album. I’m going to share the rest of the images that I think belong. There aren’t a ton, but they are important.
I would say maybe 1 of the second set of images could stand on it’s own successfully. As a group, and as an album so to speak, this set of images satisfies me more. Taking a weaker image and putting it on it’s own, doesn’t have the same effect as the whole gang.
Do you agree? Disagree? Do you like to find those certain single images that sing, or do you prefer to follow a narrative of a collection?
Thank you for stopping by again this week! It’s a shorty but this has been on my mind for the last week.
Until next time, love and health to all! <3