Recently I have written about doing a project. I said a project could keep you focused and enable you to produce something that has a coherent theme to it, and that having one can incentivize you to keep making pictures. I also said that having a project is a good idea as long as it doesn’t stop you from thinking about other spontaneous and ad hoc opportunities. I’d like to focus more on that now.

Often when we go out to make pictures we have something specific in mind, especially if we are working on a project or theme of some kind. We have planned, we have expectations and maybe we have even thought about what the pictures might look in our mind’s eye. That’s good and necessary, but it can also lock you into the expected and prevent you from unexpectedly making happy discoveries. The result — going home empty handed when there might of have been some real keepers, if we were open to the possibilities!

I’m not talking about going out with nothing particular in mind … a clean slate if you will… not that there’s anything wrong with that! Rather I am talking about keeping your project or theme you are working on in mind while not being blind to unexpected opportunities. There is so much to see and capture if only we are open to it!

Recently I wrote about my fascination with doorways. Sometimes I have gone out with the notion of searching for them; other times I was out and about looking for other things and they presented themselves. However, around the time I learned about Aaron Siskind’s work I became open to the idea of capturing abstractions and smaller elements of either a larger scene or an object itself, such as a doorway (see my discussion of the great book Aaron Siskind 100 located here On My Bookshelf). In short, I opened my mind to a huge set of photographic opportunities I hadn’t thought about before! And you should too!!!

I see interesting things I hadn’t seen or appreciated before. They were always there … I just didn’t notice them.

I’m reminded of Paul Strand’s stupendous picture Toadstool and Grasses, Georgetown, Maine, 1928. Most people would have walked by the large mushroom surrounded by grass and leaves without a second thought, but Strand saw both a complex and beautiful scene of an entire ecosystem on the ground beneath him. Check it out … you can find it in the book Paul Strand, published in 1990 to accompany his retrospective at the National Gallery of Art (I own the book and was luck enough to see that show!).

So don’t get locked into what you expected at the expense of missing out on happy discoveries. Be open to them … they may surprise you, open up new areas of interest and lead to great work!

Like the previously featured Aaron Siskind 100, much of this masterful collection focuses on the abstract … but in a different way. Here we are mostly observing elements of whitewashed architectural structures of the Mediterranean Greek Islands, and the empty spaces around them formed by sky or deep shadows.

Bond is a well-known Black and White large format photographer whose images are held by many museums in the US and abroad. He contributed numerous articles to Photo Techniques magazine over the years and taught well-regarded workshops for over three decades. During the Eighties he made several trips to the Cyclades. In his preface Bond states that he “wanted to construct images by manipulating shapes on the groundglass, using the view camera adjustments”.   The result is this exquisite book containing 42 beautiful images!

While Bond’s technique here is highly manipulative – he used strong filters on his lenses, printed with high contrast, increased negative and print development times, and even intensified his negative with selenium toner when necessary – the results justify the measures taken. He had a vision he wished to express and he succeeded. In this case, I believe to do otherwise would have yielded strong compositions containing little emotion. So Bond achieved his objective masterfully, and this wonderful book is a fine example of how a successful project can be accomplished over a period of time. Also included is a complete explanation of how each of the photographs were made, developed and printed. Most useful!

I think this a special book that deserves to be in your library. I feel very lucky to own a signed copy for myself!

Doorways have always fascinated artists, and they have always intrigued me. What do they represent and what are the mysteries hidden behind them?

To me the doorway is the portal to all that lay beyond it and the centerpiece to what surrounds it. Or it may be an abstract design, depending upon the way I choose to stare at it.

All things seem to flow from the statement the doorway makes. I have even seen neat imaginatively designed houses where the entire frontispiece seems to act as an entranceway leading to the door itself! But such uniquely designed structures are not found in the ever-growing amount of cookie cutter homes and increasingly homogenized subdivisions that is what America is becoming.

I was probably meant to live in the Forties, or Fifties, when there was character in our architecture and charm in our surroundings. Maybe that’s why I am attracted to the old buildings and continue to seek out the interesting urban neighborhoods and small towns.

Sometimes doors are tightly shut to hermetically seal the inhabitants in from the outside world. They can often see what is outside, but depending on their interest, remain hidden to the outside world. Sometimes doors are left slightly ajar, leaving it to the passerby to determine whether the quarters behind it are inhabited or abandoned.

Once in a while a door is left open so that all can see beyond the passageway. Of course in today’s society this doesn’t happen too often. Gone are the trusting days of my youth when our doors were almost always kept open to let the sun shine in so the foyer could be made brighter … and even left unlocked during the night.

Then there are the people located in or near the doorways. Who are they? Are they happy or sad, proud or defeated? What are they doing, thinking and hoping for? Why are they there — to see or be seen?

Are they hoping to be in my picture?