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Total photography

The compulsion to shoot was intense this weekend.  All week at work I'd been looking forward to doing a couple of photo sessions and actually ended up doing four - three dressing up ones  and another at a new construction site nearby.  I shot the equivalent of over 55 rolls of film which is absurdly satisfying.  Quantity may not be analagous to quality but it's a good second best psychologically.  Another benefit of shooting in such quantities is that editing can be postponed indefinitely.  I think 'art' photography could see such high output as a bit proletarian rather than reassuringly intellectually coherent.  (If you shoot 5" x 4" you don't usually knock out 2,300 sheets in a couple of days.)  I think it's still conceptual expressing itself because of/through, some hybrid work ethic/ neurotic compulsion. And I don't have the assistants to 'perfect' the shot before removing the dark slide and unleashing that exposure onto a sheet of Fuji transparency film.  With the dressing up photos I now take a series of four shots on self-timer (used to be only one at a time on the Sony R1 - god I walked for miles - in high heels), review them on the LCD, looking for problems, then take four more, review those and on and on.  If details like hair being slightly out of place or a foot at the wrong angle occur I fix it by re-taking multiple times.  Many multiples.  Till it's as right as I can get it.  It's inefficient and sessions last 4-6 hours.  I now remember to bring water to sip.  That was a major insight into how to keep going.


The building site I went to was secured with nine foot high hoardings and the satisfaction of getting in (and then out again) was gratifying in a more simple, uncomplicated sort of way.


Not editing anything leaves room for the possibility of having achieved success in implementing the ideas.  I only go so far as to have a peek to check I've not fucked up technically (it happens despite using digital), and clicking a few files at random usually tends to reassure and disappoint in equal measure, and scares me off looking too closely at any more incase I get trapped inside a construction site of disappointment and can't find a way back out.