I don’t know if this applies to everyone, but I wonder if there’s a time in every photographer’s life where we start to look for projects and not just images. I hope it means that from the perspective of our own creative journey we’ve progressed beyond the point where we concern ourselves with f-stop, shutter speed and ISO. The technical aspect of photography is now second nature, or at least it’s not the main objective, and we’re now searching for connections between our photographs, looking to tell a story rather than just produce a series of independent images.
In non-photographic terms a project is an temporary endeavour with a start, a finish and a specific objective or output. Yep, I’m a project manager and it shows. But we can apply that definition to photographic projects too. I spend a reasonable amount of time travelling for work between Toronto and Montreal. Not as much as some people, I realise that, but enough so that it has become routine. People who travel for business will often tell you that there’s nothing glamorous about business travel. “I’m off to Montreal next week”; it sounds great. The reality is crowded airports, the miserable faces that greet (I use the term lightly) you at Security – “I have to confiscate that toothpaste, Sir, it could be a weapon of mass destruction”, horrible seats on horrible aircraft, traffic jams and the same old hotels over and over.
This project was initiated, executed and closed within a few minutes during my most recent visit to Montreal. Of course I had taken a camera with me, I don’t travel without one. I woke after a night of disturbed and shallow sleep, showered and ate breakfast. I came back to my room and the idea came to me. I love black and white, I love film and even film emulation, and I love grain. Technical details – Fuji X-E2S at ISO 3200, Black and white emulation with Red filter, Silver Efex2
So here’s my 10 minute project, a series of pictures that tells a story of that point in time. If it speaks to you, please Like it; if it misses the mark, please tell me why (projects also have Lessons Learned exercises – it’s how we try to get better!).
Chris McPhee - Photographer 