I had always thought that I took pictures democratically, but looking over my work, I realize that’s not true at all; I seek out certain things. Sometimes it’s subject (fences, trash) and sometimes it’s a type of light. I have my triggers (we all probably do) and fences must be one of them. It’s something I feel I must do (have you ever bypassed something you wanted to photograph but didn’t, only to feel so strange about it that you turn around and go back to make the photograph?) and yet for some reason “because I have to” seems like not a very good reason at all: we are all more literate than that, and it’s at the very least my job to consider the intention or reason. It is all a response to something - so maybe I should start by going backwards. Sometimes I just produce and produce in order to avoid dealing with the actual work.
My problem now is figuring out how to stop taking the same photograph - or, continue taking the same photograph and figure out what to do with all of them.
Well, there is the ongoing problem I am sure we all have. At least you are thinking about it. There are loads of people that I don’t think even ever question this stuff. Infact I know we go to school with some of them.
My biggest problem right now is how to get a job that doesn’t make me want to kill myself.
Champion Beginner is written by Justin Kohmetscher, who currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, is midway through his MFA, and has a lot of fun with Tessa and Tony.
Do you take photographs and find fences (in them), or do you find fences and take photographs (of them)?
Well, I suppose that I find fences.
I had always thought that I took pictures democratically, but looking over my work, I realize that’s not true at all; I seek out certain things. Sometimes it’s subject (fences, trash) and sometimes it’s a type of light. I have my triggers (we all probably do) and fences must be one of them. It’s something I feel I must do (have you ever bypassed something you wanted to photograph but didn’t, only to feel so strange about it that you turn around and go back to make the photograph?) and yet for some reason “because I have to” seems like not a very good reason at all: we are all more literate than that, and it’s at the very least my job to consider the intention or reason. It is all a response to something - so maybe I should start by going backwards. Sometimes I just produce and produce in order to avoid dealing with the actual work.
My problem now is figuring out how to stop taking the same photograph - or, continue taking the same photograph and figure out what to do with all of them.
Well, there is the ongoing problem I am sure we all have. At least you are thinking about it. There are loads of people that I don’t think even ever question this stuff. Infact I know we go to school with some of them.
My biggest problem right now is how to get a job that doesn’t make me want to kill myself.
Good fences make good neighbors and usually make for a tension between foreground and background along the z axis that photographs do so well.