John M. Setzler, Jr.

The advent of digital photography and inexpensive digital cameras has put personal photography within the reach of most people these days. Some camera owners uses these cameras for nothing more than creating family and vacation memories, and others take artistic and professional approaches to the art. I have lots of online friends who are taking the professional and/or artistic approach to photography. I have lots of local friends and family who choose the photo album approach. The two concepts are distinctly different.

The artistic/professional photographer has a specific set of goals. Their images are designed to perform a few specific tasks. The two main tasks are to create resale value and to showcase their photographic skills. This type of photographer may be involved in family and vacation style photography, but you won’t see those images in their portfolios. The photo album photographer has a simpler set of goals. They are doing little more than creating image documentaries of their lives and events in which they participate.

Where do these two concepts come together?

I’m not sure that they do, to be honest. This is where my last blog post about Nostalgic Value ties in with this post. If you are reading this post, chances are that you are a photographer of some sort. You may fall into either of the two classifications I have offered here. If you fall into the photo album photographer category, you are already one step ahead of the game. If you fall into the artistic/professional category, you may be falling behind. If you are in the artistic/professional photographer category, ask yourself this question:

What photos have I made lately that will have lasting impact for more than myself or my customer?

It’s kind of like pop music in a way. I often ask myself if Britney Spears will still have a buying audience in 30 years in the same way that Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin do today. Will Sponge Bob Square Pants be watched 50 years from now as much as the reruns of the Little Rascals? In reality, it doesn’t matter. The real point is that we listen to or watch whatever we enjoy the most, without regard to what else is available.

People who have any passion for photography tend to spend most of their time photographing things they enjoy, whether it be kids, pets, brides and grooms, or fashion models. People who have a real passion for photography are also continuously looking for things to photograph. Sometimes it’s even depressing when you can’t come up with and idea and you have free time that you want to spend on photography. This is where project photography comes into play.

The idea of project photography is simple. You choose an idea or a theme and produce a set of photographs on that topic. If your favorite subject is your children, set yourself a goal of making 200 photographs of your kid(s) and printing each of them for use in a photo album. The time frame for the project isn’t as relevant as actually completing the project. It’s also possible to turn a project like this into a multi-year project that will contain hundreds or even thousands of images. The theme doesn’t have to be children… it can be anything that inspires you on some level beyond photography. It might be a pet, a car, a place you enjoy spending time, a group of friends, or just about anything you can come up with. The point is to have an ongoing project that you can work on whenever you feel like it or when nothing else interesting comes to mind.

I currently have three ongoing photo projects in progress. As described in my last post, I have the My Town photo series that I work on occasionally or when opportunities present themselves. My interest in photographing people keeps me constantly thinking about my 1000 Faces photography project. Since I enjoy sports photography so much, I have recently started my L.P. Frans Stadium photography project. I chose the My Town project for the purpose of creating memorable documentation of what makes my hometown interesting and unique, including people, places, and events. The L.P. Frans Stadium project is for the purpose of documenting the stadium, people, and events that take place there each year. Each of the images for these two projects is printed as a 4×6 print and kept in a photo album that will grow to multiple albums over time. The 1000 Faces project will end up as a very large poster print with all of the faces on it when I’m finished. I’m not sure if I will make 4×6 prints of those images or not.

I have two main goals for each of these projects. The first goal is simple. I enjoy looking at the photos and recalling what was going on in my mind when I made them. My documentation that goes along with each image helps me in that aspect. The second goal is nostalgic value. I hope to look back at these images in the future and remember how things were as compared to how they will be in the future…

The Challenge

If you own a camera, take on your own photography project. The guidelines are as follows:

1. Choose your project theme
2. Choose how many photos your theme will contain (more is better)
3. Set a loose goal on when you want to complete the project (weeks, months, years)
4. Make the photos
5. Keep a journal to go along with the images for future reference
6. Print the photos and put them in an album

Also, try to keep nostalgic value in mind when choosing your project :)