Here is an artists creative challenge for you.

You have a month to create a series of nine photographs that work together as a series.

Defining and working on a body of work that talks and works together is one of the differences between good photographers and great ones. While getting a good photograph isn’t too hard, creating a series is much harder.

This weeks exercise will go for a month. At the end of the month I will critique and discuss the photographs posted in the comments bellow in a webinar for an hour. Which will be recorded so that you can watch it at any time. If there is an overwhelming response to this exercise I won’t be able to discuss every project. I will be travelling with my son this January, and will be taking the month off from the weekly exercises.

The first step is to write down what your project is going to be. Once you flesh it out and are happy with it, post it in the comments, and seek feedback from the others in the group. If you do this in the first week of January I will also read them and comment on your proposed projects.

You are encouraged to seek help and advice from the others in comments bellow. For example you may like to have some help choosing your nine. I know that is one thing I love getting an outsiders eye to hear their point of view.

There are some rules to follow.

Your project is to consist of exactly nine photographs
The series must be created in January and posted in January
Only photographs taken in January 2020 can be used
The photographs must all talk to each other
There should be no odd photographs that don’t fit into the series
The photographs must have a common language and theme
Your project must have a title
Your project must have a written brief that outlines what you are planning to do
Your project is to be presented with an artists statement about the series
Post all nine photographs and a screen grab of all nine together as you would like them displayed, with your Artists Statement. Lead this with the title of your project.
Participation and discussion In this post will considered as well as the way the series works. As will your title and artists statement.

As a sweetner and to encourage your participation, I will be offering a two hour mentoring session over the internet or in person for three photographers that participate in this challenge. These will be selected by myself for a series of works that talk to me personally.

I will also print three entries that talk to me out each onto a single sheet of A2 paper and send them to the photographers, to the ones that I select to reward.

Please see my example bellow.

Ink Trees

The plan…

Take photographs that reflect my love for Ink and Wash drawings that I loved creating as a teenager. Work with high contrast and use lots of white paper to help create the feeling of a drawing. Use black and white instead of my usual sepia to emphasise the feeling of ink. Play with the high contrast settings on my camera. Experiment and see what I can create.

I set this challenge to myself. I published it in my blog before I went on the Abstract Photography Workshop that I ran with Shirley Steel in November at Port Stephens. I told the students on the workshop that I was doing this too. This is so I could make a clear intention.

Artists Statement

Pen and Ink was a love of mine as a child. I loved drawing. Dad gave me a set of Rotoring Technical Pens which I loved to draw with. I tried to add washes with paint brushes in monochrome to varying degrees of success. I loved and was inspired by Japanese brush painting. I had aspirations to even be a cartoonist and an illustrator. I even used to draw my photographs. I have copies of these drawings and feel inspired when I look at them to return to drawing one day. Later I went on to explore lithography and etching as a printmaker. I love getting my hands covered in ink. There is something so satisfying about creating art that results in a physical product that one can hold and touch. These photographs are printed on cotton rag paper to remind me of my connection with drawing.

Trees are my muse. I have only just figured out that they are. I have known they are an inspiring subject for me since I drew them all those years ago. But I hadn’t really made the jump to realising that they are my muse.

Here I combine my two loves. The love of Ink and drawing, with my love for trees.

I can only hope that my passion for the preservation of trees inspires others to act with helping stopping the deforestation that plagues our lives.