I wandered this gravel lot for a few minutes making photographs. Even after making five or six different images, I knew that I would only really want one to define this space for an audience.
My first inclination is to hit it head on, formal, horizontal stripes in a tense square (see below). That's how my brain processes the image, at first... Then I consider the work in a larger, less abstract context. I try and think from the viewer's point of reference. 'What are we looking at?' After these considerations, I broaden my array of images. I don't take too many, you see, I don't want the burden of getting back to the editing room and having to choose from so many images that I can't decide any more.
Between the cost of processing & the scarcity of the film I prefer, I need to make choices in the field and decide what direction to take. I am quite conservative with my photography. A digital camera is helpful as a 'getting to know you' tool to get a sense of the space. Making sketches here and there before the film gets burned. However, digital can also murk up my creative waters when I get back to my desk and have way too many images to sift through.
That sifting trouble, along with the organic feeling of working with film cameras, is part of why I've decided to only shoot film this year on my Saturday Drives.
So, now I'm down to staring at these two photographs. In my mind, they are 2 images of the same value. The difference is that they are currency of distant origins. Depending on the context of the images around them, be it in a book or a show with other photographs, then their true value can be enhanced. So I am going to keep them both in my wallet until it's time to use them.
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