Project Update
I am now trying to ween myself off of calling this project ‘Space Interrogation’ as I’ve grown a distaste for it. I think this may be due in part to the fact that the connotations of the lexeme ‘interrogation’ are too severe for a set of images that depict such quiet. With this in mind, I will be finally trying to rename the set in the near future.
That aside, I’d like to present this new shot for your consideration. Thoughts please?
Archway, Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, February 2012
I tend to agree with your decision to find a new name, interrogation is a very loaded word to live up to, and I’m not sure it is really what you are trying to do.
Regarding the series as a whole I agree with James’s comments RE the blueprint shot, looking at the images side by side it stands out on an aesthetic level at the least, seems to me more architectural than the rest and with less of the mystery.
Looking through the whole series I’m beginning to wonder whether it would be stronger if edited down even further. Several of the images which i think are good and really liked at the time just seem to be kind of eclipsed by the ones which are totally knock out, and to me it seems like you have enough of those to begin losing some of those which are simply good.
On another level I wonder whether without knowing more about your own ideas about this series I am basing my favorites too much on an aesthetic level and on what I perceive to be the concept, which may not fit entirely with your intentions. Also a couple of the ones I love – the red car and the phone box, seem slightly out of line with a theme I see in the others which have more of a sense of crossings/pathways, but again hearing more about your intentions might change my ideas.
The new image is one of my favorites, everything about it seems to work. For some reason it seems to have some kind of religious connotations almost but I’m not really sure where that comes from, and perhaps that is a separate thing. The glow of the archway really works, but I do wonder how it would sit next to some of the other shots which are more subdued (for example the bollard/yellow lines shot which is my favorite).
Thank you very much for the comments. It’s inspired me to do the post above.
Which are the ‘several images’ that you reference above that you think should be cut potentially?
I’m really tempted to say that this image is truly knockout.
Like. Truly. Stellar.
My only reason not to is that it’s almost too damn good.
Too damn perfect.
The ridiculous depth of the darkness. The puddles. The bollards.
The composition seems slightly at odds with some of the other images. The incredibly perfect, central composition.
I think I harbour some of Kat’s reservations, in terms of how it sits with the others, yet it really pains me to actually say it.
I really don’t want to criticise it at all.
Maybe I need more time with it, to let it sink in.
Maybe you do too.
Ok, I think my subconscious has just piped-up.
I absolutely love it, but is it too obvious?
I could imagine you almost walking along and seeing it, straight away, beckoning to be shot. A Greenaway in waiting.
Looking at the edit above, I’m struck by the lack of subtlety in comparison to some others.
In others, it feels like you’ve really had to look. To eek these shots out of scenes where they barely existed.
And this just feels a little too easy.
Despite the fact that it’s utterly, utterly knockout.
Any thoughts?
I’ve thought about this shot a lot. I can admit straight off the bat that to look at it alone makes me happy. I think it’s beautiful.
On the subject of its fitting with the series, I can understand the potential flak it’s receiving. It certainly fits my bill philosophically, and aesthetically it should be right at home, but I can see it standing out. I think the defining features that make it different are its even colour, pristine edges and flawless composition.
Being attached to an image makes it hard to cut from a series, but even with that understanding, I’m still fighting myself and anybody else for its inclusion. Right now, my biggest pro for keeping it in the series is how well it sits side by side with the eleventh image down on the set above (the centrally focused walkway with the very green trees). The colours in each image are bold, the compositions are near identical, and the contrast in subject matter excites me. Thoughts?
Just for the record, to make my position perfectly clear on this, I find style and substance to be intrinsically linked. If my images aren’t gorgeous, then they’ve stumbled at the first hurdle, so I expect no shame from anyone in talking about aesthetics.