September 2014

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/8900756218 This Month's Photograph My first street photographs had no people in them. I wanted to photograph people, but I had no idea how. Once I learned how, I continued to photograph spaces without people, because I think these photographs reflect people's aspirations and dreams. This photograph was taken in Liberty Square in the Financial District of Boston on a Sunday. On weekends, this area tends to be very quiet. I have walked thru here on Saturdays and Sundays for years thinking about making photographs. Last year I started and continue to photograph here - always very slowly and deliberately. I plan to continue to photograph here.   So many photographs, so little time I have tens of thousands of photographs that remain in storage waiting for editing. I like them and would like to edit and print all of them, but that would require too much money, too much time, and too much storage space. After I had done photography for about eight years, I was determined to figure out what to do with all of the photographs I had shot. I asked for advice from two photographers who I knew produced large quantities of photographs. At the time, I was using film, since digital photography had not yet been invented.The first was Garry Winogrand. He just laughed and advised me to get a big file cabinet , where I could throw the undeveloped film. He went on to explain that if the photographs were good, someone would develop and print them after you died. Sure enough, when Winogrand died, he left behind approximately 6,600 rolls of film in a big filing cabinet. All of this film has now been developed, and 56 of these photographs have appeared in exhibits at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and currently the Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/garry-winogrand The second photographer I approached was William Eggleston. He said he printed everything he shot. At the time, he was working with three printers. One printer worked on the images that were too dark. A second would print the images that were correctly exposed. A third printer handled the lighter images.  Although I appreciated their advice, neither Winogrand or Eggleston's advice worked for me, so I had to come up with my own solution. In this age of digital photography, I use the delete button frequently to eliminate any photographs that I don't intend to print. This is my initial editing process. I try to post the remaining photographs on Flickr rather than creating prints. I use the audience response, as well as my own response over time, to determine which photographs to print.