Robin's House

A project I have been working on for a long time is a book. This book is a horror story. Maybe I should rephrase that. It is a ghost story.

As I have been getting to the core of the incidents that take place in a small town called Mercy I am developing sets of photographs that capture (for me anyway) the texture of the place. A mood.

This is a photo where a young woman lives alone. Her name is Robin Hunter. Her life is begining to get slippery. Being a visual person I find this really helps me.

This has been a very fascinating project. It won’t be presented until March 2011 but the preparation is ongoing right now. Once I get the photos edited the way I want them I will print them no smaller that 20×24. I think larger. I am thinking that the B&W photos may be done on silver gelatin and the color printed with inkjet technology. The way I’m leaning is toward making them like competition prints. That means they will be mounted on a mat board or other material to a specific thickness then hangers added to the back.

I like the idea of the photographs not being in frames and mats and all that. When people buy them they will just reframe them anyway. This way there is no framing treatment competition going on with the piece. For a show I did during my college days I mounted all the prints and put them between two pieces of glass with a hangar. I’ve not done that since so I think minimalist is the way I’m going.

To get a preview and help out if you wish click HERE.

Spending time thinking about how the world effects your life is maybe the most important of these. To learn to allow yourself to be vulnerable to these emotions may be hard but a photo like any other form of art is a reflection of the world mixed in with your paradigm.

Also looking at as much work by others as you can is very important. I’m not talking about the Flickr what a bees but truly talented photographers both of the past and present. There are several excellent magazines that contain compelling photographs and I mean that even if you don’t like them. Some I would recommend are PDN, Photo Eye, Aperture, Lenswork, B&W, and Silvershotz. These are just a few. Most are available at your local Border’s or Barnes and Noble or online. Some have extended content on their websites and offer contest opportunities.

Spending time with these publications can spark a lot of thinking and push you to try new things even though they may be very difficult to accomplish. Most of us fine art photographers have other “day jobs” and that does impact our growth but even during that time you can work on your seeing. I’m sure that you already have plenty of books on the how to do things. Work flow, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc so now look for books on how to look for photographs. How to see. Some of these books can cover the standard “rules” of how to shoot a picture but they will also force you to look past the rules.

I fully agree you must understand the rules before you break them. In some cases looking through books of great painters is very helpful.

When you are standing with your camera thinking there’s nothing to shoot here, STOP. Move into a more Zen like state and absorb your surroundings. Feel them and build an emotional bond. Open your eyes and look very carefully. The photo is there. Let your emotions guide you.

Many times I go out to take a specific photo and to look at what I’m doing one would think I was nuts but the truth is I “see” something more. I have a concept in my mind of what I want the photograph to be when it is finished with all the post processing. I relate to the emotional elements I’m trying to portray. Like a poem.

What I shot.                                                 What I saw.

Today, even with the glut of drug ads for depression medication, we don’t except people with mental illness like we would any other sick person. We still want to shut the insane away or just abandoned them to a life of homelessness.

Asylum Door

Now the ones that haven’t been torn down lie shattered like many of the lives of the residence who once lived there.  A stark reminder that as a society we have yet come to grips with mental illness or its treatment.

Asylum 1