I consider my photographic practice to still be in the forming stage. I have a number of subjects which create stronger emotional connections for me than other subject types of forms of photography. The images that speak mostly strongly are based on people in places and this is why I particularly like Richard Avedon’s American West pictures where traveled to the West of America creating a makeshift studio to shoot the people he met on his journey. The interesting element of this body of work is that you have Laura Wilson’s book “Avedon at Work in the American West” that provides additional insight into the photographs that period and the fact that Avedon was experimenting with different photographic techniques from the ones he normally uses.
This year Ted Forbes from the show the “Art of Photography” interviewed Laura Wilson for his artist’s series http://theartofphotography.tv/episodes/artist-series-laura-wilson/ during the interview she talked about that period of time when she assisted Avedon and how the some of the images where not well received by critics however when the subjects saw the pictures they identified strongly with the pictures. As I start to talk about my research project and share some of the work in progress images I am finding that none photographers are finding resonance in the images.
The other key message which I have taken away from that interview and for me needs to be at the core of my own photographic practice is that I need to spend more time researching of other forms of are to understand what has already been done within my domain. I really liked the quote “..forget the F-stops, forget the shutter speeds you really need to be well informed and have something to say…” I think this message is at the heart of why my practice is still evolving because I have still not completely discovered my voice. I experiment but sometimes stop too early which means the story is not fully developed.
