random....

most of you are right now either working on personal essays or are trying to think of a suitable project...we chat so much here about essays, connecting pictures, editing for either concept or story, and are generally thinking of a "whole"....

me too...just like many of  you, i am  right now trying to get a handle on my "Off For a Family Drive" project ...i do this, of course, by photographing...thinking without shooting does not work for me ...now i am in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and photographing "random" families over our holiday weekend....working on my family too...but i  drive , have coffee, think it all over, get confused, get clarity,  let my mind wander off into space while someone is talking to me about the waves for surfing, think about giving it up, think it is the best idea i have ever had, or maybe worst idea ,and generally torture myself to death!!  what fun.....

when i was in college, and probably before, when i went to the school library i would read every book in sight except the ones i was assigned to read...my education came from those "random" books i think...it was always more fun doing something i was not supposed to be doing!!! human nature i reckon, and certainly dah nature...

what about random pictures??  i shoot them all the time (as below) and they end up usually "going nowhere"...but i can't help myself....if i see something interesting, for whatever reason, i will take a picture...i always have my camera...perhaps even most of my pictures are "random"....what about you...what do you do with your offhand "random pictures"?  are these pictures merely an "escape valve" ,as was my library reading, or are they an integral part of your work as a whole???

Comments

[Akaky]

"...or are they an integral part of your work as a whole?"

Random shots are my work, if you can call it that, as a whole. I fear I have not advanced much beyond the "Oh, that looks interesting, let me take a picture of that" school of photography. I should try to string them together into an essay now and again. It would help me learn to edit my stuff. I tried to keep all the words of wisdom in the previous post in mind this morning when I shot the Memorial Day parade here. It's at

http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/slideshow/12829

and I tried to keep from spraying shots all over the place and to link them together. I wasnt altogether successful-no one's going to know what the firemen in full rig are doing there unless I tell them that they answered a call along the parade route just before the parade began and I am still wondering if I ended the thing on too cornball a note-but it was (and still is) a nice day for a parade.

Thinking about it, wouldnt taking random shots all the time sharpen your eye? Writers get told over and over again that they should write something every day, just to keep their edge. Wouldnt the same thing apply to photography as well?

[tssullivan]

ALL my pictures are random. I may accidentally slip into a theme every now and then, but it's not really seriously planned to happen.

I show my website to anyone who cares to look. Most of the more "informed" ones say that there is too much there....and/or they say that I'm all over the place with subjects and themes.. Actually I agree with both. but that's the way I shoot.

Believe me, if I showed every decent shot I took, there'd be 5 times the amount. Admittedly, I do put up some pics that I know aren't quite there, but I'm kinda hoping someone will comment on it so I can figure out exactly how I screwed it up. sometimes it's not readily apparent to me....albiet months down the road I tend to figure it out.

Hearing now in this post that you do the same thing, but actually do have an overall theme going........but still shoot everything you see.....gives me hope.

I always thought people expected me to go out and shoot NOTHING but one idea. That I cannot do. I can't walk by something and not shoot it, just because I'm presumably working on something else.

So, having said all that. If I did manage to dream up a theme....go out and shoot it......but end up shooting whatever I see. Whcih may or may not be the theme. How do you reign yourself in and concentrate on the theme. Especially, when some of my better pics are of the total random ones.

[david alan harvey]

AKAKY...

if i were you (hmmm, now that is a thought) i would be even more random...i think your parade falls into the category of "coverage" which is ironically not random...maybe randon subject, but not really random shooting in that it seems like you were trying to show the whole parade...

yes, you are right i think, that shooting always, no matter what, sharpens the eye...it must...just logical....

now i have a one picture assignment for you....shoot one picture in very low light...light where you would never normally even think of taking a pictures...at home or restaurant or wherever....a portrait or still life, but low low light....

can you do this??? or, rather, will you do this??? try it, you will like it...

cheers, david

[Ari Baiense]

Once in a workshop the instructor said a photographer must shoot every day, and I kept that in mind. So, many of my shots are random and at the moment of the capture they can mean anything, but each time I look at them they can tell a different story, and for me this is the beauty of photography.
Editing, as discussed in the previous topic can be hard, and harder depending how attached to your photos you are, but maybe this is a subject for another discussion...

Cheers

[Ari Baiense]

I did two series thinking this way: VizMix and Fragments (at my portfolio: aribaiense.viewbook.com)
During my journey to work and back home, passing by many different places (I'm living in Brazil and actually working in Nigeria).

[Herve]

Well, David, and others, Let me answer by taking the opportunity to expand once more the invitation to anyone here (and you too), to save at least one random shot from oblivion every week, by partipating to our "photo friday" photo-journal, open to all roadtrippers, and hosted/linked by our very own David Mc Gowan:

http://humanfiles.com/pages/photofriday.htm

Ultimately, and already!, I think for all purposes, the history of photography is the history of the resonance of single shots in the public consciousness, random or off an essay.

No disqualifier, but I think essays are not photography, but rather contain it.

After, isn't photography anything but random? (not to be confused with waking randomely, or badly prepared essay/project)

[Herve]

ERRATA:

I meant of course,

...After all, isn't photography, taking a picture always random? (not to be confused with waking randomely, or badly prepared essay/project)

[young tom]

Random all the time ... even if in the context of a "project" with too little clear thought I think, or don't think enough, or maybe too much. Not sure, confused, frustrated. In the end if it all just ends up being whitebread boring ... random or not ... it ends up in the same file, or should. Big file, bigger all the time but saved if something coalesces later. There's always Foto Friday to share random thoughts.

[young tom]

Ah, I see Herve just evoked the random Foto Friday ... and we are saying the same thing essentially. Who'da thought? ;-)

[young tom]

Damn I miss the Outer Banks ... hushpuppies and shrimp and bluefish, always loved Beaufort down south, amazing Spanish moss cemetery there ... sorry, random thoughts ...

[Mike Berube]

david,

i think everyone works differently for sure. some people need to be in their environment were ever that may be and some just need to shoot... some may need to draw... i think whatever works to get you thinking more and more about what you want in the end is the main goal... for me i am not sure what really works at all... it changes maybe 3 times a day... but other days i am just "on" and i know what needs to be done.

if taking random images is what works for you then do it and think more and write more... all of this is a process. as well having lots of images that mean nothing now can mean something later... help show you different directions on were the projects is going... or were it is not going...

i am in the same rut right now actually and i find the same... shoot and see what you get... work hard at it. sleep when you know you got it...

[Jonathan Hanson]

"Random" images sometimes make it into my portfolio, but mostly, I post them on my blog. Thats the great thing about blogs, its a diary, and for photographers,it can work as our visual diary. The random shooting helps expand out "visual vocabulary" if you will. When I am shooting on assignments, I always find what I am not supposed to be shooting the most interesting and always take time to explore that. Sometimes they make the cut and are published, but most of the time, they end up in my blog and occasionally in my portfolio. If it were not for the "random" takes, I think I would go mad because like you said David, its the release valve where I let myself out and just be me. If anyone wants to take a look at some of my random work feel free.

http://jhansonphoto.blogspot.com/

David and others, I stocked up on some new photo books and have been researching the hell of out my June assignment. I am going down the list tomorrow and making calls, trying to get access. I will post an update in a few days of where I stand. David, I can completely relate to the roller coster of emotions you talked about. I have moments of absolute excitement and feel as if this is what I am supposed to be doing, and others of absolute doubt. I wonder if I can accurately portray what is happening and give the people involved the respect, dignity and truth they deserve wether they are a victim or a criminal, dead or alive. I believe in the power of photography but I don't know about the idea of truth in photography. Can photographers really create truthful images or does their interpretation and presence alter that truth? Thats what were are doing, interpreting and creating images that "speak" of the moment. Humanity is just so complicated, can it be captured in an image? A bit heavy and long winded I know, but its just a sample of what I have been thinking in regards to a project that I feel is so important and dire. I think the most important thing though, is to keep pushing through I just make it happen.

[Gui Galembeck]

Great Pictures David !
i am everyday Ramdom ! I work this way a lot. Sometimes I just stop, look my images and think about "what am I doing ?" or "what I will do with this?" other times I just let it flow.... and shoot. My perspective to know about good (or not) essays always come from ramdom pictures organized in series (a little bit stupid I know). I think it works like a reflecting road.... a lot of times it send me to nowhere project. Sometimes it shows me the beggining of a new road. Sometimes it's just ramdom, and I like it !

[Paul Treacy]

Random. Randomness is what it's all about for me. Sometimes those random pictures fit into projects; flags, plastic bags, dogs and assorted general weirdness. I simply divvy up the takings into the various categories and see what evolves over time.

In September, however, I will begin a specific project in London that'll keep me busy for some time, outlined briefly to you, David in an email, no doubt buried in the enormous mush that must be your inbox. More on this later when I flesh out my proposal.

David, any thoughts on my previous mentioning about a Photohumourist Collective?

Best,
Paulyman

[Joni Karanka]

Hah, that reminds me that I was just reading about accidental wine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Cortado

Basically, 1-2% of a kind of fortified wine randomly turns into a different kind of wine during production. And it can't be be produced by human interaction...

[Aleksander Nowak]

I'm all random ever since I've started shooting (or rather discovered how the camera and the street work together...) I don't know if its the effect of the form I've chosen to present my work, day after day, or rather the cause for it...
For first time now I am seriously engaged in any longer-term project... Suddenly it's all different, not about the effect, but rather my own approach... planning shots, views, imagining situations I can find myself in... it's not everyday me. But that's alright! I am much more energized, determined, street-assertive than ever with my usual day-after-day work... I even dreamt of buses last night! I don't consider it an effect of being non-random, but rather of a change itself... I'm just wondering when I'm gonna burn out with this project... Still lots, lots, lots to do... The shape emerges soooo slowly... (...what shape?!...) ;-)

(Hah! You reminded me myself! All those books except the ones I had to read... it was all like this... ;-) )

[cathy scholl]

DAVID,

Please forgive if I am repeating this link and you already have seen it (and not felt it was worth commenting on) but since you have mentioned several times that I need to show some new work I am thinking you have not seen that I DID post new work...

Since I have been working full time on my house for the past 8 months most of the shooting I've been doing (unfortunately) was with the intention of trying to document plumbing in the walls, sewer line locations and so forth but every so often a worker was around (randomly) and I'd include them... After collecting several random shots I got the idea that it could be something I could "focus on" more seriously but so far that hasn't happened..mainly because they don't want me hanging around getting in their way...and since I'm paying most of them by the hour it's in my best interest to get out of the way! :))

So here are a few RANDOM shots..for some reason they appear much darker published on the page than the .jpgs but they'll give an idea of what I've been up to.

http://web.mac.com/cathyscholl/iWeb/Site/house%20remodel.html

[mike lillie]

Good question. I have many "random shots" in my archives. Some of them end up being great shots-some just memories. In the days before digital, when we all paid a lot of money to shoot slide film, I wasn't as liberal with random shots;I am more now. But where my "random stuff" has come to be useful is in my teaching. My students get to see that not every shot is a masterpiece. You can learn mechanically how to take very good photos, but a shot is either there, or it isn't. This is what I do with mine.

[Aleksander Nowak]

(btw, I am still shooting loads of "random" frames... the project happens in between... when I'm not in vicinity of the bus stuff, I'm trying not to think about it... but the random ones still tend to be the better ones... we'll see...)

[David Root]

for me, random pictures do two things (and probably more that i am unaware of):

they provide an escape from an assigned story (still waiting for one) or personal essay and, sometimes, lead to new bodies of work.

btw, if you enjoy taking and looking at these random pictures then they aren't "going nowhere."

best,
dave

www.thestorminmyhead.com

[wrobertangell]

I think this might have something to do with the type of camera that one chooses. lets face it, you can shoot candids or random shots with a hand held but if your on the tripod, its a little tougher to be random. anyway, as a rule now, I only shoot when I want to, unless on a job, but I will only take a job unless the potential client has hired me based on my strengths. I will definitely not take a job if I would be reaching out of my style.
I like the word "whimsical" rather than "random". I think I have shots that appear whimsical that I really like, but they where sought out. I generally will scope out my shots before hand. I dont like standing around with my rig, looking clueless and trying to figure shit out.

[Aleksander Nowak]

"I think this might have something to do with the type of camera that one chooses."

I've chosen small 35mm because I knew I wouldn't be happy with bigger one on a tripod... What actually determines what... Am I "random" because the camera - and the workflow/technical style attached - I've chosen? Or have I chosen it because I'm "random"?

[wrobertangell]

Aleksander,
I have no idea why you make the choices you do, but I would presume if it was an assignment that you would be giving a great deal of consideration to the equipment that you felt was best suited, but if you were shooting for fun, because you wanted to, with nobody setting the guidlines, then maybe you would randomly select a camera and there for could be behaving in a random fashion.
but I think there is a cartain randomness even in the deliberate work that we do. on the tripod, where I choose to set the thing, how close , far, left, right, rise, fall, etc.
a random photograph that has nothing to do with anything at hand, or the task at hand. if that's what a random photo is, then I dont really have a lot of that kind of work in my archives. generally I am usually focused on the task at hand, and if not I am probably not taking pictures.

[wendy]

I see the world in frames.. Whether I am pressing a shutter or not, taking random photos or not, I experience my world thru imagery.. For me, my random photographs are my visual diary....
xox in lux, wendy

[Martin Brink]

DAVID,

Good question. My random pictures usually end up in a library. My thought about them is that one day maybe they will be part of something bigger, if they not get lost and forgotten.. I also think it's easier to edit down large amounts of images after a long time. There's only a small amount of images you stand to look at after seeing them a couple of times..
I've also started to think about one image projects..sort of like Crewdson, but not shot in the same way. One image will be the whole project, but that wouldn't be easy and takes a lot of thinking. Hope to figure it out..

At the moment I'm not shooting a lot, except for things I'm paid for. I guess I need a break sometimes, but I see something I think is interesting I'll probably use my mobile phone :)

Cheers

[wrobertangell]

you can definitely shoot a story in a random kind of way, were you have made conscious descisions that would give the appearance of being of the cuff or random. Ryan McKinley, Tim Barber, or Jurgen Teller, really fine examples, in my oppinion, of contemporary shooters that look spontaneous but work their asses of to achieve that look.

[wrobertangell]

sorry about the horrible spelling

[Aleksander Nowak]

wrobert - I wouldn't change my equipment for an assigment... I wouldn't actually accept serious shooting in i.e. colour 4x5... just because I'm not familiar, accustomed, comfortable with it, I'm not sure if I would cope with unknown technical style that change of medium brings... I shoot b&w only, for a few months 1 lens involved... I don't change my gear to be consistent with technology at least, being random with my approach...

[wrobertangell]

Aleksander,
that sounds a lot like me, although I have strated shooting more color neg, but really I am a creature of habit, and I habitulize what I enjoy. so now I really only use my view camera, and I only have one lens. very basic shit.

[Jared Soares]

David,

As a newspaper photographer, being able to take random pictures keep me sane. It's the photos on the periphery, away from my actual assignment that I take for myself that fulfill my need to be creative. These photos never run in the next day's paper. Once in a while one might run as a secondary photo but rarely and it doesn't matter. These random photos are for me. They let me experiment with my seeing, essentially keeping my eye sharp for the next time. Sometimes these photos get posted on my personal blog and sometimes they stay in a folder on my desktop. But, I do know that these random photos help me grow.

Jared Soares

[Aleksander Nowak]

yep, habit - that's actually necessary in certain aspects I guess... ;-)

[m]

david

thanks for sharing your personal work... your randoms... it's fun to see how you think, when you're not thinking... it's fun to peer into your mind, and what feels like your sketchbook for your "real" work.

thanks for that.

m

[Charlie Mahoney]

DAVID ET ALL: What is the protocol for responding here? Do you respond in the comments section of the original blog or post in the comments of the new blog? I promise to get the hang of things here soon;-)

DAVID:
Since I posted at the end of the STOP blog and we've now moved on to the new blog I'm reposting here just in case. Thanks again.

1) Living in the Shadows is a current project of mine. I began it this winter and have shot it off and on since then. When I initially responded about assignments for this month, I mentioned that I live in Barcelona but was prepping for a trip to Mexico City (now two & half weeks away), but since I am now tight on time (AND if I do anything at all right now), I'd like to continue improving the Living in Shadows story. When I get back in July, I'd be happy to start up a new assignment in Barcelona.

2) When you responded to me last week you mentioned the following: "in some of the other essays you just need to please take out some of the cliche pictures to make your work really sing...in about 10 minutes with you in person i could edit your work down and make your whole presentation absolutely fly...."

If there is anyway of getting that ten minutes from you, either here, by email, phone or chat, that would be ideal, but I understand you have time constraints. I'm also attending Look3 and was planning to try to get some meetings and show Living in the Shadows, but if I'm not ready, that could be a terrible mistake. Maybe I'm better off not worrying too much about printing this week and get out and shoot more of the African immigrants. Aiiiiii me han enterado las dudas!

3) I'd also like to know which images were the 4 or 5 images that you liked in Living in the Shadows.

4) Finally, you asked earlier "i am curious to know where you want to go with your work". I'd like to do editorial work and some travel work with an edgy editorial style.

I hope that all helps.

all the best,
Charlie

[Paul Treacy]

I too am very much enjoying your random shots. What impresses me on a technical lever, is the dynamic range you appear to capture. The fullness of both the shadows and the highlights. Is that the M8 at work?

[panos skoulidas]

it is the M8..
drug the photo into your photoshop then
click File Info and voilà ...M8 glory..

[Matt Blalock]

Hey David, hey all! Oh and hey Paul (in the comment above me) - I am attempting to get in touch with you David, I have a similar proposition as Karen Mullarkey - although I am not nearly as cool and important as her.

I am starting a new website for documentary or photojournalist photographers. The premise is that you submit some photos to us, something you shot recently, and we might publish them on our site in a gallery format. It is paid, photographers retain all copyrights and use.

We have received several entries from photographers I often see on this forum, but we would appreciate any more.

Our website launches June 12th (at the Charlottesville Photo Festival where I met David almost one year ago).

If you would like to submit some work, send on over to me, submissions@vewd.org

And David, I would love to chat with you about this, my e-mail address is blalock.matt@gmail.com (please don't send submissions to this one)

All the best,
Matt Blalock

[Paul Treacy]

Good man, Matt. Exciting plus plus.

[bobblack]

DAVID:

I seldom know the difference between a "random" picture and a "planned" picture ;))))....this will not be a typical Bob Black post...'cause im running late already, so briefly....

for me, it's always a combination of both...i often have "planned" ideas: 1) an idea for something (for example now about time and family and dima/mydad/bones or the Korean/Immigrant students or m family or Toronto/Chinatown) or 2) and idea that comes to be after reading or seeing other pictures or talking with marina or seeing something. But, just as often I will shoot someone, someplace, something that inspired me: just a pic or two or three...then i look at the negative and think: ok, that's it...That is how the my whole "face" project begin (which is now almost 4 year long project)...

it's never a fine calculus...im also a strange photographer. I shoot the way i write or the way i used to paint: i think alot alot alot and then one moment, or one day, or one month it explodes and I shoot like a maniac...i can shoot everyday for days or i can wait 2 months...the only problem about waiting is that the "physical breathing" of shooting tightens up, gets lost...cause if i wait too long or go too long without shooting, it seems "forced" i think about the camera, i forget to see and think more about the camera itself...but i am always always looking and always thinking...but also sound, sound can unleash an image...

let me show you a couple of "random" images that lead to a body of work...most of this is old, so bare with me:

1) 2001: the first photograph i ever made of dima. He is in the tree. his bike is in foreground.it was winter, and the first time i every photographed with Marina (before we were married): i saw the neg and i was happy and proud of the photo...i often think of it as my first "successful" photo in toronto...but was just a random thing: i saw dima in the tree and the bike and my heart broke and i put the camera up and...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2526152564/

2) A photo of a russian teenager at a party in toronto. I used to go to lots of russian parties and always felt like an outsider. i saw this teenager (girlfriend of our friend) and she looked so lonely and sad (she was young) and i thought: she looks the way i feel...so i photographed her...this later became the first photograph i ever had exhibited in toronto (also went to Hong Kong) in a group show...it made me start to think about faces....and identity...2003

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2526157186/

3) Right before I got married, i went to a party at my brothers house (to celebrate my pre-marriage)...there was a beautiful old woman there (my brother's wife's mom)..she was behind the bowl and cigarettes (my old habit) and the sun light was setting and she was in shadow and i thought: shoot it...later, it became part of the last series i worked on before i left florida: the shadows i saw there, 2002:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2525343281/

4) last one...I just scanned the negative to this 2 months ago, even though it is from October of 2003...see Marcin, I dont always look at my negatives!!...i "remembered" this photo for years, without looking at the negs...we had kids over for halloween and i shot 3 rolls, but this moment struck me and i was always afraid to look at the negative 'cause i figured: bob you suck...then, i looked 2 months ago...it's not a great photograph, but it means alot to me...i once sent it to David Alan as a gift (jpg)...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2526183582/

OK...none of these photos are great, but, they were taken of the moment...and all lead me to discover something....

my contribution ;))

hugs
b

[bobblack]

Matt! :)))))

I saw your post at LS the other week and saw the preview html you hyperlinked :)))...looked wonderful...will show to Marina (my wife) when it goes live...great to hear you guys are paying too :)))and the rights retention ! :)))))....

will chat will Marina tonight and drop you a line after june :))

cheers
bob

[bobblack]

wrobertangell! :)))

"I dont like standing around with my rig, looking clueless and trying to figure shit out..."...

that's a funny/brilliant quote :))..i think most of the time each of looks clueless: i always think photographers look stupid (especially myself) running/walking/standing around with gear, or shooting with gear ;))))...but I totally get what you mean..

this one is for you...one of my and marina's beloved photographers: enjoy! :))

it's a film on Alexey Titarenko! check it out :))

part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMxOqvIBaDU

part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrhR4Sk-dsE&feature=related

part3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24nY4xI-Vbo

cheers robert

bob

[wrobertangell]

thanks Bob
I already look completely absurd trailing a lugage cart with a rubber made tub for the camera, all bungee'd together, and a fricken majestic tripod over the shoulder, with a gerry rigged strap that I had laying around. fucking carnival side show attraction. talk about a lot of funny looks. so you see I have to at least look like I know exactly what I am doing, even if I don't.
just trying to minimize the ridicule of it all.
thanks for the link.

[Panos Skoulidas]

I really, REALLY love this photo...
Can i please buy a print from you...
Bob, email me... how much ????
remember: Im not rich.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2526183582/

[erica mcdonald]

I suppose I am of the 'nothing is random' philosophy, where in personal work even the seeming one - offs are part of the greater picture. That said, a great many of the photographers I admire never set out do do projects or particular bodies of work, they came in an organic way out of desire and interest and curiousity..so it's a case of everything and nothing is random.

One of the physical laws of the universe is entropy..the fact that randomness in a system is inevitable, and all order ultimately moves toward disorder, or, as it is seen more recently, toward being dispersed. So this dispersing of energy is to be expected..making it not really random at all.

Okay, the behemoth of a camera has been purchased..now to clean it up and buy the other accoutrements (back drop, tripod) and get some help on board..If you want to see a photo of the chosen camera, I posted it on Lightstalkers, the post that starts with Whoa...

ANYONE in NYC wanting to lend a hand for this please email me..there is a link on my website..can't pay, but I'll be nice, it will be good fun, and hopefully the images will be worthwhile...and I can keep food in your belly while we are working..

DAVID, did you ever get a chance to muse over 40 days for LOOK3?

[lisa Hogben]

You know I wish I could shoot much more random stuff. Am I lazy? I just never carry a camera around (except my little film Mu which sadly never has film in it nowdays) unless I have an idea about what I am going to do.

I don't know, maybe if I just got looser the work would be better, but I just kinda like the pressure of having to go out and find something in every situation rather than ones I cherrypick.

Which brings me to -DAVID- I have a corker of a story!

And it just fell in my lap last Friday!

What do you think about this as an assignment? The only trouble is it will go on for longer than the month, but I am starting to shoot the preliminaries today!

The Sydney Street Choir, who were all homeless and with a variety of mental/drug/alcohol/personality problems have decided that they want to travel to Uluru to apologize to the Aboriginal Elders for the treatment that they have received under white fulla ways.

The irony of this is that of course Aboriginal people have many of the same issues as this group of people have and have been totally done over by white society as well.

There is a lot more and I am definitely will be shooting the whole thing, but in the process of the lead up to the road trip I will be shooting these guys as well.

What do you think? I am excited about this one cos its a whole bunch of new people but still links in with all my other work.

I think this is how I work best, its got a beginning a middle and hopefully a cathartic end and whatever happens in between. I guess thats random!

[Matt Blalock]

LISA

That is the most random story I have heard of in a while! Ha! Should turn out to be a nice story. I look forward to seeing it.

PAUL

Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

BOB
Your comment inspired me to work on this project at least another day, ha. That is exactly what I like to hear! I look forward to your contact.

[cathy scholl]

MATT,

FYI I tried to check out your site, which is currently displaying an email list signup sheet. Attempted to add myself to it but the site says it's "unable to locate the list"

I am interested.

[lisa Hogben]

MATT

"Organized Chaos" is one of my favorite terms!

[Paul Treacy]

Okay, I'm hooked. Bob, you've sucked me into your monochromatic vortex. Mesmeric photo making. Love it.

Later I'll look to be swirled up some more.

I guess today I've been looking with the right eyes.

Best,
Paulyman.

[cathy scholl]

I had a great "random" experience.
Had the holiday off from working on the house and went out with my camera to a Veterans for Peace rally. Nothing there worth shooting so we went for lunch BUT...

After the rally ends the B-boys I have been trying to locate and shoot for the PAST YEAR randomly showed up and took the stage! I shot with them for an hour or so and got all the info about their upcoming battle, phone number, etc...

I'm IN!

From this point on it will no longer be random but what difference does it make...Random or not it's all shooting...
Same, same.

[asher]

No human creation is truly random. We all have a subconscious need to reverse the constant progression towards entropy, to take the scene before us and try to impose some order on it.

I think all apparently "random" photos are more akin to sketches that just don't quite make it. But how to know what won't work if nothing is ever ventured?