Transcript
I think that individual images are fine, but they are much more interesting to me when they belong as part of a set. Particularly if the set of images have high cohesion. For if the images are highly related, be it aesthetically or perhaps thematically, then I think the resulting portfolio can be more powerful than some of its parts.
But creating sets of images is not easy for most photographers, and I think that very few photographers ever sit down to arrange their work into groups of related work. This, I feel, is a great mistake, as we all can learn something about our photography in the process, in addition to learning about the actual work itself.
When collating or grouping images together, I often find relationships where I had not noticed them during capture. For instance, whilst in Hokkaido during autumn of 2023, I had not envisioned a dark set of images while shooting. It was only during the editing and selecting of the work that I saw many of the images had a dark element to their compositions. It took me around three days before I realised that there was a dark theme to the work. But once I'd figured that out, I was on my way towards the final selection you see here.
But there are potential problems in creating groups of images or looking to get such tight cohesion in one's work. And that is when you try to make images fit together that simply aren't meant to be together.
I often think that images tell you what they want to be, and you just have to listen to them. They tell you what they are.
It can be a little restrictive if you try to force all of the work you've created to look too similar. I sometimes worry that I will kill the essence of what each image is if I force them to comply too much, to make them belong too much as a set.
As a response and solution to this, I tend to sit on the images for days because I have learned that I am not always in tune with the spirit of an image immediately.
If I've made a bad choice, it tends to become obvious over a few days or perhaps a few weeks. Good ideas tend to be silent and do not jar, but bad ideas tend to get harder to live with over time.
Then there are those sets of images that just do not belong to your thematic set.
This recent Hokkaido trip showed me that there were a clear set of dark images, but also a few other sets of images that did not seem to belong together.
One set was off farmland in the centre of Hokkaido, and I felt it required a different approach. Another set was based around a set of dead trees. I did not see a way to make these three sets of images coexist as one larger set.
It seemed they belonged apart.
But I do like working with collections of images. I've discovered so many things. For instance, I really enjoy working with very small sets. Maybe three images at most. It allows for more clarity. It helps me rationalise the edits and approach.
By keeping the subgroups at three images, the intention behind each edit becomes much clearer, and much simpler to execute. And I don't find myself straying off into the long grass too much.
But I cannot deny it. I came home with far too many images, and most did not work as one large set.
It all became much easier to understand and tackle, once I realised that there were subplots within the main plot of my Hokkaido story.
