Ah! I read this now…I’ve learned a lot from the very process of submiting this project.

just send you 021-036….i had problems with my connection to transfer…sorry…i just re-uploaded #36…

at your convenience (no rush), please confirm that you have Black_Bob_021 – Black_Bob_036

cheers,
running
bob

20 years ago, reading about the hundreds of thousands of shots that Winogrand left unedited or undeveloped, people found it bizarre and tragic. After the digital revolution, almost every passionate photographer will come to a point where they think: this is my situation too.

We shoot ten times as much as in the film days, and if we, as most of us do, publish stuff on the net, we tend to ignore the art of editing our pictures (not to mention our words, because the same applies to all the -mostly unread – blogs on the web; they exist out there, in a limbo, like undeveloped rolls of text). Editing our own stuff is much harder than finding someone else who has that rare talent.

Not all of us will suffer and die from gall bladder canser, but we will certainly die, and most of our pictures and images will disappear like Winogrands undeveloped rolls of film, not because all of us lack talent, but because we don´t know how to deal with the unexpected, and almost impossible task of being our own editors.

I think your post above pretty much tells me I need to rethink, indeed reshoot my entire project. Or maybe just do a better job of editing. Ugh! In either case, and as I said in a post elswhere on this site, I can’t believe I actually thought those were worthy. This happens far too much. I think really need help.

MK

Hmmm, very long stories… like life is…

;)

good question….i think the “rules” for the way pictures should be edited change so much over time, that there really are no “rules”…

every editor of every magazine, for example, has their own set of “rules” and if you are working for that person, then you we know what those rules are….every magazine has a “sensibility” and if you are a working professional you should definitely get a sense of their sensibility…BUT to not marry that sensibility, just be aware of it for practical reasons..

when i am teaching and a group of photographs is laying out in front of me on a table, i can quickly move things around a bit, do some sequencing and “show” a student perhaps how to think about things…this is really hard to explain online….i can do a lot here, but that is one of the things i cannot really show you…and besides, the way i would do it, may not be the way someone else would do it…

just do the best you can using your gut instinct…basically, it is not a good idea to repeat yourself in a sequence of pictures…if you have one really great picture of your dog sleeping on the porch, you probably do not need another one , no matter how good it is….

the biggest mistake i see with portfolios is exactly that…repetition of an idea…3 pictures of something, where 1 would suffice…do not show anyone how many good pictures you have of exactly the same thing…for example, 10-15 strong visuals that are all related, but do not literally repeat, is probably a good place to start…

we will keep talking about this subject here for awhile i think…it is very important..thanks for asking

david

That’s a great description or set of descriptions. I’d have given you an A in any of my writing courses.

et al

I do have a blog, but no one ever sees it; maybe some of you could comment on something. I usually try some of my newer photos on it.

I too (referring to some post of David’s somewhere) got started on blogging from looking Alec Soth’s work.

http://www.michaelashapiro.com/blog

Michael

ditto about meeting: i’ve got a nice hug and bottle of ice wine for you (which i might give to chris anderson to give you when he comes up for his WPP)…

i’ll know more in next week….

i feel the same about you, 100%

meeting in person: im same as here: you’ll have to ask chris a after we meet then ;)))…im same spirit as here (only I snort when i laugh ;)) )

running
b

are you going to be in new york any time in the next couple of weeks?? i would love to have you drop by and jam a bit with my students….

like michael, i feel we must meet in person….

what will that be like???

I am ever striving for something approximating “authorship.” And, Damn!, is it hard! Usually happens when I least expect it. When I don’t even know it. Kind of like being in the zone. Everything is fluid, smooth with emotion.

I’m particularly happy with the recent submission to David…nothing may come from it, but I am happy. I approached things slightly differently…maybe I should have approached it “greatly” differently? Not sure. But I feel OK about it. But then, tomorrow I may not feel that way at all! Always happens. In fact I’m sure it will happen. Oh, christ, how could I have thought that was any good! Too late, now, eh? (But that’s tomorrow.)

Anyway… constant failures, yes. Even more so on this end! But it’s getting there. It is mine. Struggling for less “constant failures.” Thanks for the inspiration.

Must go shoot.

MK

Martin: :))..thanks amigo. indeed, i love Milosz, always have, but not only him, many many of the great Polish poets :))))) (filmamkers, writers, photographers too )

Cathy: happy birthday :))…thanks for the wonderful words…

Asher :))…thanks so much for your kind words, i really appreciate that, specially about the pics :)))

Glenn C: yo, Im happy you are showing: I LOVE YOUR ESSAY BROTHER…as you know :))

running to call Moscow :))

off now for a few days :))

hugs
bob

like cathy said thanks for the site, i’m here often and i apprciate reading all the comments that people have taken the time to write. if i find just one thing everyday just imagine at the end of the month i’ve learned 30 new things!

yes I must say that your offer to edit my story was really more than I could have even THOUGHT of asking someone. I also think it will be invaluable to me, really for you to take time out of your life to do it is fantastic. Big Thanks.

If I have time to September 24 I will send my story as I promised. but I’ll do it in last day. I must leave today.

Martin

My English language is not sufficiently to understood your long stories, but I’m sure wise your words are.

“i write because it’s a part of me.
i photograph because its a part of me.
i live because i am alive. “

great words, you are not only good photographer!

And you mention Czesław Miłosz’s poetry!

Martin