Every so often I like to give myself little photographed assignments. These are usually rather straight forward and simple, nothing earth shattering, nor are they concepts that will set the world of visual art on fire. Really, they are just for me to keep my mind fresh and force myself to look at the world with an eye for observation. Most of the time I keep this kind of work to myself. Mostly because the final results aren’t much to really speak of and like most artists or photographers, I constantly grapple with the notion that most people don’t actually want to see what I’m working on.
Photographed with a Hasselblad SWC and Fomapan 100 speed medium format film.
Probably because it is a three day weekend and the photo session I had planned for today had to postponed, I find myself in a more sharing type of mood. Recently I spend every day for a week solid photographing birds near power lines. Why you might ask? No reason. I just felt like it.
Over the course of the week I really only exposed two rolls of film. One roll in 35mm and one roll in medium format. Most of the images were unimpressive, but really that’s not the point of doing it at all. I don’t care how much of a seasoned artist one becomes over time, we all need exercises to keep us fresh, to keep us thinking, and to keep us in a state of growth. That’s what this is about. One week it might be birds on wires. The next it might be stray cats. The next might be potted plants. The point is to pick a subject and try to get creative with it the best you can.