The coming of age of a photography project - Part V
Showing you the evolution in my long-term project Riverlands
This is the fifth in the series about the making of my ongoing project 'Riverlands'.
Missed the previous parts? Here you can read part I, part II, part III and part IV.
In previous articles about the creation of my photography project, I have shown you images based on inspiration I found in all sorts of places.
One of the images I took, a panorama of the banks of the Lek, was also used in the exhibition at the end of September. I printed it on brushed aluminium and next week I will write about that exhibition in the newsletter.
I hadn't used this format of panorama very often before, but I have to say that I really like it, especially considering that I want to photograph a bit more minimalistic. Well, my images have always been quite quiet in terms of content, but I want to take this one step further. Partly inspired by Japanese photography. I deliberately don't say Japanese photographers because Westerners also show that they are influenced by this form of photography and are very successful at it. Think of the Spanish couple Albarran Cabrera or the Dutchman Paul Cupido
One of the things I tried before, sequences inspired by Robert Adams and Ger Dekkers [in part III], I showed to a group of photographer friends and received constructive criticism. The horizon was very different in some cases, which makes sense because of the different angles I was shooting from and the distance to the subject, but all in all it still gave an unsettled image. I tried to avoid that in these new photographs.
So, having first explored the area around the Lek River and found a few suitable locations, I went back to shoot them with the result already in mind. If you have an idea of what you want to depict, it is much easier to take that into account when composing.
Click the images to enlarge
And some sequences
Still not really sure what this project should become, but getting there step by step…
Like to hear your thoughts on this set of photos (and the project).
Next week
Next Tuesday I will show you the exhibition I had end of September. Still waiting for some prints I sold to arrive so I can show you why I choose that specific printing method.
That’s it for this newsletter.
Till next time,
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I do think it's interesting to show the process. I once attended an exhibit of Ansel Adams' early work. And boy, did he make a lot of awful images! But they also included a few masterpieces, and you could see the evolution, to a degree. I liked being able to see all that.
One difference is, your outtakes are a lot better than his first ones!
Last comment. In the referenced post a number of the triptychs were composed with different lines. I personally prefer those to images that are Very Very similar, on the same horizon but at a just slightly different angle. For what it's worth.
Are these your out takes?