Every now and then, you will likely hit a rut … and will need something to drag you out of it. One of the easiest ways to reinvigorate your photographic vein is to work to a theme.
| Themes can have many forms – common subjects, complete sets, different styles – but whatever they are, they should challenge you.
A recent theme I have started, in order to re-focus my eye, is based around a public transport opportunity in my city of Brisbane. The city council has deployed a swag of new buses in its fleet … 500 to be precise. They have also kindly labelled each bus with what number in the sequence it is. My challenge is now to collect the full set of these buses. While it is unlikley I will get the complete set (for many reasons), just having this sopic has already started my photographic juices again. To assist in the motivation for this, I have also started a Flickr group to get like minded people active as well. Themes should act as a focus whether by encouraging, inspiring, challenging or simply motivating you to start looking. They can also help you to look at your image making in a different way. Picking a theme can kick start your mental juices … but making the results interesting should keep them flowing. Probably the ultimate extension of the theme can be found in the work of a pair of German photographers: Bernd and Hilla Becher. Their images of industrial structures were all linked by a common theme and while each shot was a masterwork in itself (although maybe a little dull) it is when you look at a complete collection that you can start to see how the theme generates a rhythm of its own. |
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Would it be cheating if I just wandered down to the Toowong Debot and got one of the guys to cycle the number display. I could get a thousand different numbers that way.
Comment by Paul — January 17, 2010 @ 9:25 pm |
Well, while it may be cheating, it may also prove a little difficult as the numbers I am looking at are painted on the buses
Comment by peppergroyne — January 17, 2010 @ 10:40 pm |