kuophoto blog

This post is going to be about the project. I’m currently working on “As Intended” www.kuophoto.com It’s currently in it’s final stages, not yet complete. My goal in my projects is to be able to convey my statement through my photographs. The primary goal, is to communicate to the viewer, my intent. It MUST do this, or I feel I have failed. This can be a slow and painful process. It comes down to the edit, the “Sophie’s Choice” of choosing which ones stay and which ones go. This may seem like a melodramatic comparison, but it’s quite accurate. It’s agonizing to omit a beautiful photo because it’s just that. A beautiful photo. But it doesn’t communicate the message. It has to have purpose. This happens often with me and it takes a thick skin and iron will for me to not include it anyway. Again, less is more, lean and mean. Steve Jobs said something about his need to educate people on design. My job is to educate the viewer about the intent of my project.

The process can take longer than expected because as much as you plan, things change when you are in the field. When you are actively in the process of creating, things happen that are not foreseeable, and your original idea can take on a new form. For example, when I began “As Intended” my focus was on sustainable farms. I had made several visits to farms that were local and sustainable. Until one day I happened upon a dairy farm that had Animal Welfare Approved status. I was in a conversation with the farmer who said “I like to refer to us as accountable agriculture” and that resonated with me so strongly, that at that very moment the focus of my project changed. The previous farm visits were out the window. I would use none of those images. The project would not be authentic if I had, and I would know it. AWA farms are sustainable and local but they have the highest ethical standards for the treatment of their animals. Providing an environment for the animals where they can live and thrive as they were meant to. As they were intended. So back to square one. This commitment is worth it in the end. When something speaks to you, it can’t help but be infused in your photographs.

I sought out the AWA farms in my area, which there are not many, and began documenting what life on the farm was like for these animals. My goal is not to simply show a good life in the barnyard  without cage confinement, but how their life on the farm has been designed to accommodate each of their specific biological needs and habits. These farmers go the extra mile and then some to maintain this status. For me there is never complete clarity in the project. Although I make notes and have a succinct mental outline of how I want to approach it, again when I’m in the field, it almost never follows the original plan. For example with my hit and run project, I started out with so much footage. Black and white, the entire animal, cars in the shots, gory shots, shots with flash which dramatized the tragedy. They ended up being edited out in the end.  Some of these shots were truly great shots but they did not make the grade .Why? Because they did not align with how I feel about the subject matter. I am not out to “get the shot” it’s too easy. I felt loss and grief and wanted to convey something poignant. Not something obvious and exploitative. So the project slowly changed  into something that finally conveyed my feelings on the topic.

Going back to “As Intended”, my initial feeling was to show groups, herds of animals in a vast and wide open prairie or range. However, as I came back  to look at my images, the majority of the photographs were capturing something much more individualistic about each species and that was what kept coming to the surface more than the other shots. So again, there seemed to be a shift away from the original plan. This is an agonizing process because at times you can feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, you lack focus, and you’ll force the project to go with the plan. This never works. Or at least it doesn’t for me. This is where I have to trust and be with the subject and let the creative spirit do it’s thing. It’s easier said than done. I want to control it, get to my destination by pushing my vehicle past it’s capabilities. I want to rush it, only to return with disappointing results and to burn out in the process. I over think things which is a big obstacle for me. It’s like Star Wars. You have to get the blueprints to the death star, be prepared as much as possible, but in the end, you just have to trust and let go which is the hardest thing to do.

Another thing is consistency. This is another major pain. I have accumulated so many photographs that I love, only to find that they have edited themselves out again due to lack of consistency in the overall project. “Which one of  these things is not like the others” I have told myself many stories to make it work with the whole, only to have sleepless nights because it’s like the relationship  you want to make work but deep down inside you know you have to break up because there’s no future in it. It’s pretty, but it lacks the glue and substance. A necessary cohesiveness, which brings me to your style. Every photographer has a specific style that is like a fingerprint that is unique to them. Does it have your signature?

It’s so tempting to say it’s good enough or it doesn’t really matter, or you tell yourself that it’ll work in the end. What adds to the desire to make the glass slipper fit, is the fact that every time I go back to the farm, which is far far away, and now with daylight savings time I have to get up even earlier, even before the farmer, and when I get there the cows are not where I want them to be, or they are forever grazing and not looking up, and when they do they look up, won’t stop chewing their cud, or they are in a pasture that isn’t as ideal as the last pasture I was in last time, or the one cow that I wanted to specificially photograph has a bum hoof and is rehabilitating inside the barn where it’s too dark, or it’s a full on sunny day and not partly cloudy as predicted…the list of excuses goes on and on and on.

I have a friend who has 20 black turtlenecks? And maybe 6 pairs of white jeans? She can make a case for each and every one of them, but they aren’t all necessary.

I have not worked on this alone. I have sought out the counsel of another creative. A mentor.  For myself I find that another pair of eyes that I trust implicitly that has no personal investment, or ego, who fully understands what my intent is, (the planets must all be in line here) which is the key, can help me see the forest for the trees because I’m too close to my project. He’s my photographic Dr. Phil, but with Yoda sensibilities. This can be a slippery slope because often times you can find yourself feeling insecure about your own choices and by asking too many people for their opinion, (been there) only serves to be more confusing. I also have to be careful not to depend on the feedback too much and use it as a crutch but instead use it as learning tool because in the end, you are the artist and it’s your voice that created the project in the first place. You must be brave to enter this Dagobah system of feedback and inner exploration. It’s hard hard work. This is what Paul Arden has to say on the subject:

“DO NOT SEEK PRAISE. SEEK CRITICISM.” 

It is quite easy to get approval if we ask enough people, or if we ask those who are likely to tell us what we want to hear. The likelihood is that they will say nice things rather than be too critical. Also, we tend to edit out the bad so that we hear only what we want to hear.

So if you have produced a pleasantly acceptable piece of work, you will have proved to yourself that it’s good simply because others have said so.

It is probably ok. But then it’s probably not great either.

If, instead of seeking approval, you ask, “What’s wrong with it? How can I make it better?”, You are more likely to get a truthful, critical answer.

You may even get an improvement on your idea.

And then you are still in a position to reject the criticism if you think it is wrong. Can you find fault with this?

So my graveyard of “pretty pictures” is ever growing. These could well be pictures that a client would love. Perfectly suitable for stock soup. But for my personal project, my voice, they don’t make the grade.