Shooting to a Theme

What follows is purely empirical and an educated guess—meaning, it might be wrong. But: my sense, gleaned from years of working for and with photo hobbyists and enthusiasts and observing dedicated photographers and artists, is that photographers in general are happiest when they shoot to a theme.

The luckiest ones are those who find themes that they remain interested in long-term. Recently I had a few exchanges with a reader and supporter of the site who shoots urban scenes at night. That's his theme—he's good at it, he enjoys it, and his interest, focus, and direction amplifies, motivates, and enriches his work.

Recently I've been thinking of doing a project on items for sale by the roadside. I keep noticing examples in my area—everything from motorcycles, to rowboats, to a WWII-era Jeep that suddenly appeared perched on a hillock on a country corner. I haven't started this yet, and I might not. But I think I'd enjoy it.

It would get me out of the house.

That's a big component of the usefulness of having a theme, actually—it gets you going. I've used the "fishing" metaphor before—that getting good pictures is a combination of knowledge, preparedness, spending time, having a "feel for it," and luck—like fishing. But what's true of fishing is certainly just as true of photography: you're never going to catch a fish unless you're fishing. And you're never going to luck into a good picture when you're not taking pictures. Getting out of the house with a camera in your hand is a very underrated essential component of good photography. (I use "getting out of the house" in a figurative sense, there; what I mean is getting down to work, however you get down to work. Even if—as it was for a still-life photographer classmate of mine—it's done entirely in the house.)

Having a theme provides a starting point, a trigger. It helps you overcome inertia. Peter Turnley lived in Paris for a quarter century, and whenever he was home he loaded B&W film into a Leica and took pictures where he lived. Obviously, the theme: Paris. It took a while, but he's done one book of Paris pictures and he's thinking about doing another one.

By Sally Mann, from At Twelve

If you think of it, a large number of great phototgraphers worked to a theme. The theme could be grandiose (a representative portrait of the German people across every strata of society between the wars [August Sander]) or trivial (pictures taken from your seat by the window of your apartment [a project André Kertesz did in old age]). Some photographers kept multiple themes in their heads and add to them gradually as they come across more and more picture subjects that fit. Lee Friedlander photographed that way for many years—he had various ideas, and, whenever he'd get another picture that fit a particular one, he'd literally throw it in a box with the others. It's not like he only photographed self portraits or monuments exclusively for concentrated stretches of time; he'd shoot generally but was always looking for chances to add to his chosen themes.

Some themes are simple (Arnold Newman's life work could pretty much be covered under the rubric "portraits of important people"), or complex (Robert Adams's work concerns development, environmentalism, land use and misuse, the inherent beauty of land and how we experience it, and it touches on a host of related issues).

Incidentally, I've been meaning to link to a terrific interview Steve Huff published recently with Shelby Lee Adams. (No relation to Robert, that I know of, and neither are related to Ansel.) The interview will open your eyes to how involved some photographers get with their subjects over periods of time that stretch into decades. Shelby Lee Adams is definitely a photographer with a distinct, well-defined theme.

What was Sally Mann's At Twelve? Just a self-assigned theme. She photographed twelve-year-old girls. A simple idea with plentiful opportunities. Not my favorite work of hers, but it got her going, and led directly to her much more important later work.

Some themes are too simple. I saw an entire book once of (black-and-white!) pictures of sunflowers*. About three would have sufficed for me. Pass!

A theme doesn't have to be big and important, though. I'm absolutely convinced that I could do a decent set of picture of the little block-long alley behind my house. If I walked up and down it every morning and evening for a year, I could come up with a great set of probably 12 to 16 pictures. (Granted, maybe not 40 or 60.) Things happen out there from time to time, but just the changing light and seasons and the lifecycles of the plants would yield subjects for the camera.

I could be mistaken when I say that having a theme or themes tends to make photographers happier and more industrious. Something to think about, though.

Mike

*Not Paul Caponigro's.

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Featured Comment by Edward Bussa: "Not that you need it, but you might find some inspiration for your project in this presentation of some work my friend, David McGowan did over the course of a year or more called "I'm one of those Americans."

Mike replies: Beautiful. Thanks, Edward. An impressively done project, and a perfect example of what I'm talking about. And notice how different some of those pictures are from each other, despite being thematically linked.

It also brings up the point that although not all photo-reportage projects are theme-based, some are.

Featured Comment by Rob Atkins: "I worked for Pete Turner for a number of years. Probably the most valuable lesson I received was watching Pete develop and work on and a few personal themes. These projects were about keeping the love affair with photography alive. The risk of burn-out from commercial assignments was, at times, a threat. Demanding deadlines and clients certainly bring a lot of stress, but the pleasure of going out and doing something just for yourself, just for the pure joy of it, was always restorative. It's a lesson that has stuck with me.

"Here's a personal theme I've just begun. As Mike says, 'It gets me out of the house.'"

Featured Comment by Jeffrey Goggin: "As someone who came late to the 'shooting to a theme' party—thank you, SoFoBoMo 2009!—I would also add that themes sometimes have a way of finding the photographer instead of the other way around.

"This certainly was the case with me, as I never set out to specialize in urban night photography (what a coincidence, eh?), but opportunity knocked one night in May 2009 and although I didn't recognize it at first, it provided me with exactly the shove I needed to push my photography forward in a way I never imagined possible.

"9,200 miles and 57 outings later, I'm still as enthusiastic every time I load my car with gear and head out to photograph as I was 15 months ago, and the only thing that stops me from doing it even more often still are the 70+ hours a week my day job demands of me and a need to sleep occasionally."

Featured Comment by Richard Howe: "I was never interested in photography and never even owned a camera (!) but sixyears and some months ago a friend offered to lend me his old digital camera (he had just upgraded) to take with me on a trip abroad. I still wasn't interested but he was insistent, so I took it, just to end the discussion.

"Though I wasn't planning to use it, I thought I should take a few shots, just to avoid any further discussion like that when I got back.

"To my complete surprise, I was instantly, totally, irrevocably smitten with photography. But once I was back home in New York I was overwhelmed by all there was to photograph, and scarcely knew where to begin (abroad it had been easy, somehow).

"Not knowing what else to do, I decided to take the camera with me on one of my (frequent) long walks (8–10 miles) in Manhattan, and just to shoot a picture at every intersection I came to....

"Somehow over the next two years this idea evolved into a project—a 'theme'—to systematically photograph all the street corners (usually four per intersection) on the island (more or less 11,500) and to do so as much as possible in less than a year, in fact, to do in the good weather interval between early spring and late fall.

"I thought it would generate a lot of material for me to work on and improve my skills, and that it certainly did. I also thought that I might get a few really good pictures out of it, and I like to think that happened also. And I wanted to do something that might have some value to people other than myself (as, eventually, straightforward historical documentary), even if many of the pictures had relatively little to offer from an aesthetic point of view.

"I did get 95%+ of it done in the first year, and almost all the rest of it subsequently (I still have some intersections I want to do over again, for various reasons).

"What started out as as somewhere between an accident and a lark has become the experience of a lifetime—and some of my hopes for it have been realized too, a little.

"About the learning aspect: it was a 'learning experience' in every imaginable way, and some that I hadn't imagined, either.

"Now I'm looking for another theme—but something much less grand in scope—for the 'Leica Year' year that TOP has convinced me is the next step.

"The New York / Manhattan street corner photos can be viewed at New York in Plain Sight."

Comments

[Jamie Pillers]

Here we go, Mike:

1 camera, 1 lens, 1 year, 1 theme! :-)

[Mike Johnston]

Jamie,
One could do worse. [g]

Mike

[RP]

This is a great, great point. And it dovetails very nicely with some of the stuff you and others have written about the GF1 and using a limited set of gear. Limiting choice in all aspects of life, but especially in art and photography, can be a very good thing. We tend to think that the more freedom and choice, the better, but the opposite is often true. Too much choice can be paralyzing. Whereas a more limited approach or mindset allows you to focus and let your creativity flow more easily.

The Paradox of Choice does a good job of addressing these issues if you're interested.

[Robert Roaldi]

And motivated too. My meager contribution: http://www.pbase.com/robert_ottawa/eateries

[Ben Rosengart]

My most thematic set of pictures is also the one which consistently gets the best feedback from viewers. Some day perhaps I'll turn it into a book. Click the image to see the set.

[Bill Poole]

Another similarity between fishing and photography: the best times of day for these activities coincide. This is one reason I no longer fish.

[Mike Johnston]

Robert,
I would edit out the word "meager."

Mike

[Paul C.]

When I began taking pictures a couple of years ago, I disliked the idea of themes. I wanted photographs that I felt could stand on their own.
I still don't head out with the express purpose of photographing X or Y, but I now enjoy placing my finished photographs into groups that reflect a common theme. And the themes I'm discovering in my work are a constant surprise to me. The last one was decorations in shop windows. Who'd have thought?

[James]

A nice idea, Mike, and by coincidence, it crystallised something in my mind that was kicked off by your "Year with a Leica" article that you recently brought back to the front page.

I've always personalised my computer screen with a desktop picture that I took, with normally about a dozen or so that rotate on a weekly basis. Mostly, they are natively 4:3 from my old Mamiya 645, so the dimensions worked well on my old screen. Since changing to an Apple Mac however I need pictures in the 16:9 aspect, and none of my favourite ones work well.

My project - for up to a year if needs be - is 16:9. The GF1 has a 16:9 mode, so here I go!

[Paul]

I can´t conceive an alternate way of working photographically than by a theme. Any other way is self delusion, relying on luck by heading out of home, hoping for a couple of "masterpieces" is a sure recipe to burning out and failure. I´ve been stuck for pretty much the whole damn year and I´m in fact deceiving myself by seeking the ultimate theme, the one nobody has attempted before. When the simple answer is something easy, probably right in front of my nose very quotidian which would certainly be the answer to my woes.
Paul
....It´s amazing but suddenly right here right now I´ve finally found a theme to work on which I chance upon as being inspiring! Thanks Mike for a timely post.

[John Friar]

Mike, I completely agree, approaching photography with a theme, or two, in mind certainly makes for a happier and more industrious photographer. This is true in my case, at least!

My most successful period (in terms of finished prints that I actually like) was a week spent in Scotland with the sole aim of photographing Scots Pine. Other themes have only emerged recently after 30 years of sporadic contribution(in the Lee Friedlander way you described above). It may take another 30 years to round these themes out but having them, and being aware of them, keeps photography fresh for me.

Cheers, John

[Chad Freeman]

EXACTLY.

Of all the things I've learned so far doing the Leica Year project, this lesson has been the most important. Call it a theme, a project, or even goals, they make a big difference - especially as an amateur without deadlines, bosses, or a paycheck driving them to make pictures every day.

I've been meaning to write about this topic for awhile, but you saved me the trouble and did a better job than I would have.

[Simon Robinson]

I have found shooting to themes to be very liberating. For years I just took random photo's of scenes that appealed to me - which was fine as I did get some nice photographs. But there wasn't any direction to my work. Then a couple of years ago I was inspired by Kertesz's book "On Reading" and started to photograph people reading. The Reading theme is an ongoing one and one that I will keep adding to for as long as I am photographing! This in turn led to other themes and currently I have around four or five different projects on the go!

Some of my themed photographs can be seen here...

http://sar-photography.typepad.com/sar-photography/2010/03/reading-part-1.html

http://sar-photography.typepad.com/sar-photography/2010/04/reading-part-2.html

http://sar-photography.typepad.com/sar-photography/2010/04/newspaper-sellers-of-glasgow.html

[Hugh]

"1 camera, 1 lens, 1 year, 1 theme"

I seem to be heading that way.

5Dii, 35mm/1.4, Black and White, naked women on rocks.

Spent a week in Scotland taking pictures with a model, used the 35mm lens about 95% of the time, didn't really want or need the other lens.

Using one focal length only certainly helps produce a cohesive body of work.

[Paul W. Luscher]

Dunno if you'd call it a theme, but I've been shooting blues, folk and alt-country musicians for getting on twenty years--pretty much at the same club.

I'll never get rich doing this--let's face it, while the music is good, these people will never make it on big-time commercial radio.

But doing this allows me to combine two thing I love--photography and good music.
And I'm making a record of people who deserve to be recognized for their talent and their contributions to Americna music.

Who knows....one of them may be the new Dylan someday. And I was there at the beginning...

[Nick]

A few months ago, a brief email exchange with a wise photographer caused me to shift my mindset from "taking pictures of whatever strikes my fancy while walking the dog" to "making a set of pictures of my hometown." I started enjoying photography a lot more, and I like to think that my pictures got better (though I still have a very long way to go).

[Steve L.]

I couldn't agree more on the value of Themes and Projects. I've floundered around taking photographs of this and that for over 30 years, but it wasn't until this year that I started working on "projects", and it's really changed my photographic life for the better. It's been great fun to have something to work towards, instead of just "this and that". I also inadvertently entered into a "one camera, one lens" theme as well. I didn't mean to, but after buying a Pentax K-7 w/ DA35Ltd lens last winter I've used it exclusively ever since. I just haven't felt a need to buy another lens yet.

As for themes, I chose two things that I love - classic cars, and New York State's Canals. 99.9% of the photos were taken with the K-7/DA35. Check them out here if you are so inclined:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slinco/

[Reese Robinson]

Themes... My photography has ups and downs, but I was motivated once, for quite some time, by a photographic theme that appeared in the movie "Smoke". The movie has a number of people in crises - some big, but most small. The owner of a Brooklyn smoke shop has a photographic theme, which he talks about when the protagonist comes to him with his troubles. At the same time every day, he photographs his smoke shop on a corner in Brooklyn. He's done it for years. As they page through the same scene through the years, you see the subtle changes and notice the little things in life. Great movie, and the little things in life is a great theme.

[Mark Myers]

Our photography group, f8 Pasadena, has found the adoption of themes to be a great way to expand our skills and get us out shooting. We meet for coffee every Saturday am, but quarterly for dinner to review the results of our efforts. Having a photo assignment often stretches us outside the limits of out comfort zone, but has always been rewarding.

Here is the result of my photo-essay, "Mr Bill Rides the Goldline!" with all pictures taken on the opening day of the Goldline Metro in Pasadena, California.

http://www.f8pasadena.org/?p=50

If any of you are in Pasadena, we invite you to join us for coffee!

Mark
www.f8pasadena.org

[Dave]

Shooting to a theme happens naturally to photographers that display their photos on the web using sites like flica and pbase.com. I stumbled across the theme idea very much by accident when I first started posting over at pbase. In order to keep my photographs organized I had to create separate galleries. Some of my galleries inadvertently became theme assignments.

I've been working nonstop for seven years on my "Pilot's Eye View" theme. My camera comes along on every trip I work. Over the years I think I have really improved my eye and photography skills. Right now, I am working on putting together a self published book that I plan on selling to my coworkers and other flying buffs. Without the theme I would never had gotten to this level of organization. You can see my flying gallery at here

[Stephen Best]

Some themes are too simple. I saw an entire book once of (black-and-white!) pictures of sunflowers. About three would have sufficed for me. Pass!

Paul Caponigro's Sunflower?. I LOVE this little book. As B&W (by which I mean the play of light captured in silver, or rather ink here) it doesn't get much better than this.

[dale]

The fishing analogy works.....
trouble is, I've been fishing downstream of some REALLY good photographers....

[John]

That's what SoFoBoMo is all about -- intense focus for a short period on a theme. I've done it twice now, this year with a GF1, and it's among the best photo experiences I've had.

[Michael Farrell]

Struggled with this all my photographic life. What the heck am I shooting? Anything I happen upon? What's the story here? What kind of photographer am I? Can I answer that question?

Still, a few worthy pictures have appeared. Enough to satisfy my creative needs and justify the gear purchases. So I continue.

It's with some dismay I admit that I need to travel to "get me out the door". In a new location - doesn't have to be foreign - I have no trouble stepping bright-eyed into the street or the landscape, even lugging a tripod, at six in the morning. By contrast, at home I am very lethargic. My own world doesn't always speak to me. Yes, it helps to contrive a theme.

I've gone to a number of countries - what were once called third-world - on my own dime, mainly for picture taking and I would get asked back home about poverty and danger, misery and otherness. That's when I realized I WAS shooting to a theme, without even planning it. I wasn't so interested in seeking out injustice and political unrest - the media is full of that. I am drawn more to how everyday life is lived in spite of that context. Us relatively wealthy westerners would be wise to see that a rich, "normal" life actually exists in these places: citizens getting along, going about their business, having a culture, maintaining a society.

So within that notion, occasionally digressing to architectural details and lovely landscapes, I try to make good photographs, because theme or no theme, you still want your pictures to pop.

[Mike Johnston]

"Paul Caponigro's Sunflower?"

No. Actually, I've never seen that, although I've seen some of his sunflower pictures elsewhere. The book I'm thinking of was titled with the photographer's name, and it's nobody I've heard of since. I don't think I'd mention her name even if I could remember it, simply so as not to give offense. The backdrops in many of the pictures were plain white bedsheets, if I recall, in which you could still see creases from when they were folded.

Mike

[Jan Kwarnmark]

Self-assigned theme. Look (Google) at Sune Jonsson from Sweden. His life-long theme was the life of small farmers in the north of Sweden. He knew they would soon disappear. "A fly on the wall" with so much knowledge and empathy that it gave him Hasselblad´s prize. One of the masters.

[Richard Ripley]

Thanks Mike for your thoughts about themes...

[Mitch Alland]

A long-term project is likely to determine how one shoots in general. Starting my book project, Bangkok Hysteria, about five years ago, I was shooting Tri-X with the Leica M6, but the following year shifted to of small-sensor digital cameras whose RAW files I processed in black and white. I continued doing only black and white until I finished the book project a year ago.

At that point I found myself unmoored in that, without a project, I had nothing to guide me in terms of what I was going to shoot. But the realization suddenly hit me that, without a project that determined the mode, the situation was different from shooting film, where the choice of mode depended on whether one had color or black or white in the camera.

Shooting digital, I now had to choose at the time of framing, whether I had color or black and white in mind: although some pictures can work in either mode, I found that, generally, once I reacted to the colors, and framed on the basis of color, I couldn't get myself to process the resulting picture for black and white. As Alex Webb discovered when he first visited the tropics, and gave up black and white eventually to become a mater of underexposed Kodachrome and Cibachrome prints, color in the tropics can be overwhelming — and for this reason I found myself producing only color for the last few months, an example of which is my 12-photo series, Bangkok Shophouse Demolition.

While shooting on the basis of a project can be productive in the sense that once you know what you're looking for you find pictures more easily, there is also a benefit of shooting without a fixed purpose. The latter approach can open up new possibilities that eventually can lead to new projects. It can also produce results like this Barrier series, which I put together when I found that I had a lot of pictures with fences and other obstructions in them.

From my experience, then, it seems that it can be productive to shoot projects but also to alternate this with periods when one shoots without a specific purpose. In my mind, a "theme" as referred to in Mike's article, is something more general, something between shooting a project and explorative shooting. If I were trying to formulate a theme, I would think in terms of the way Ralph Gibson's earlier books are structured, such as Days at Sea, Déjà-vu or Chiaroscuro, in which the themes are visual and poetic and difficult to express in words. My still feeble attempt at this is Scratching the Surface.

So, we have projects, themes, and general explorative shooting — I find mixing also these can be productive; but when you get in a rut...

[Eric Erickson]

Mike, thanks, this was an inspiring article. I have been struggling with several themes this past year and nothing has hit, but I feel better knowing that I am not alone in not finding the "perfect"theme. Eric

[ed hawco]

The most motivated I've been in ages was during 2009 (with a bit of overlap into 2008 and 2010) when I had a theme of "clandestine street photography," meaning street photography shot entirely discreetly, "from the hip." Part of the idea was to do street photography that excluded people's faces, which is a bit like making a pizza without cheese and sauce -- after all, people and their faces are a cornerstone of street photography.

But no, I had to be different. This difference was motivated partly by the fact that photographing people without their permission is technically illegal here in Quebec. (For more on that, see the About page on the photo blog I was running for this project.) But I also wanted it to be sort of organic, and to not look too purposeful. I want them to read like glimpses, not like studied compositions.

It was great to have a theme, and to investigate my own thinking into it. I realized well into the project that I had actually been laying the groundwork for it two or three years earlier, although on the surface it appeared to come to me one day, out of the blue.

This project lives entirely on the web, where it is just more noise added to the din. But I really enjoyed working on it, and I'm thinking about moving some of it off the web and into print form. However, most of the pictures are very grainy, noisy, and blurry (part of the appeal, from my POV), but that means it will be hard to make good prints.

If anyone's interested, I've compiled what I think are the best of the lot into this small gallery (where I converted them all to B&W; originally about a third were color).

[Steve Weeks]

Now this is a post that has resonance for me.
This summer I spent time in the south of Utah and have enjoyed and pictured the parades and county fairs of the locals. Good folk there and a joy to be amongst them. It renews my faith in the youth of today.
Hopefully my images will conway my feelings. I can see this as a long term project, not to mention it really spins my prop.

Time will tell if it pans out.

Steve

[rich]

All of my life, I've been interested in a number of "themes," two of which are churches and abstracts.

However, I don't always set out with the camera specifically to do a theme -- I don't want to miss the spontaneity of unplanned opportunities!

Often, one of my "themes" will present itself without my planning. I've gone to the Anza Borrego State Park here in Southern California during the past two springs to to photograph the beautiful wildflowers. On my first trip, while spending some time in the town of Borrego Springs, I saw a sign pointing to "Church Lane." Following it, I happened on three beautiful churches:

Borrego Springs Churches

Another theme is abstractions. While travelling to the Hubbell Trading Post in Arizona, I happened on this beautiful dunes scene:

I don't think I would enjoy limiting myself to just one theme for a period of time. There is just too much out there to enjoy photographically!

regards,

rich

[Joseph Reid]

Thinking in terms of a theme has helped me enormously. This summer, after sending off my M8 for a three-month clean-lube-adjust session, I went back to B&W film using an M4 and Voigtlander's 1.1 50mm, generally wide open or close to it. One picture I took -- a balloon in a crosswalk -- led me to a theme: Searching for dreamlike scenes on my 50-minute walk to and from work through Manhattan. The theme made me concentrate on and be aware of what's around me much more than when taking random shots during the same walk. Some of the results are here:
http://www.jerphotography.com/gallery_01.html
(The gallery does include three older pictures that also seem to work in the theme).

[Isaac Crawford]

I'm not taking a lot of photos these days, but I think that if I were to jump back into "serious" photography, it would definitely be a theme type of work. Growing up in rural(ish) Virginia, I have always been fascinated at the undergrowth found along the sides of the road. It's a special type of growth, lots of creepers, youngish trees, and usually fairly dense. I have thought many times of buying another large format camera (would love to do 5x7, but it would probably be 4x5) and making a go of it. If I'm going to do it, I should do it soon, before my MS makes that decision for me...

[Mike Johnston]

Joseph,
I love that FBI/CIA shot. That's urban surreality all right.

Mike

[Richard]

Generally I agree. However I also think that if you have an eye, then themes will emerge from your work naturally without consciously seeking them out, and it's from this that your style will develop.

[J Hayes]

Themes are cool! Especially when you are a non-pro who does photography for your own satisfaction.
When we moved to southern California 7-1/2 years ago, I began shooting photos of the funky things you see here and posted them on a website for our friends in Boston to marvel (and often laugh) at. I'm way behind on the website (http://www.jimhayes.com/cahome/OnlyInCA.html) which only has about 100 photos on it, since the current iPhoto album has over 500! Last winter I printed a selection of photos into a small book for holiday presents.
(Mike - email me a postal address and I'll send you one for your library-it will contrast well with the art books!-JH)
Last winter it was translucent fruit and veggie cross sections on a light table for a calendar for our remodeled kitchen.
Then there is the architecture series with 13 Frank Lloyd Wright sites, FLW Jr in LA, John Lautner, Soleri, Calatrava, and more.
Come to think of it, most photos I shoot are based on a theme. It makes photography more of an intellectual -as well as artistic - challenge.

[george carvajal]

Returning to photography after 30 years I found my self shooting anything and everything. I have finally settled into street photography, recording the homeless in Arizona. This theme challenges me. Here is my blog http://boxcustom.blogspot.com/

[James McDermott]

Thematically, I've been wasting my time for years, pottering around medieval churches. Hugh's inspirational 'nude women on rocks' is the way ahead, no doubt about it. A quick question, Hugh: do you find that you often forget to bring a camera?

[Joe Lipka]

Themes are nice, but add the constraints of a specific number of images and a deadline to make a project based on a theme. The project provides all the joys of working in a theme but forces you to make a decision on specific images.

[Christopher]

I haven't read through all your comments to notice if it has already been pointed out.

The book "On Being a Photographer" by Bill Jay and David Hurn discusses very well the topic of a theme and photography.

A very enlightening book, well worth the read.

[Joe Cameron]

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."
Albert Camus

[Ed Knepley]

Couldn't agree more. In fact, today's post on my Photography Improvement blog (before reading TOP) was titled The Best Images are in Your Own Back Yard - with a link to a book that I just updated yesterday that follows that theme.

http://edkphoto.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/the-best-images-are-in-your-own-backyard/

Only one observation - your one-year time frame for your alley is what I'd consider a bare minimum ;-)

[psu]

I don't think you can really take a good picture unless you have some particular theme or subject matter in mind. The picture is only interesting if you are interested in what you are shooting, at some level.

This is why people always take better pictures on vacation, or of their kids (vs. other people's kids), and so on.

I am a fellow Paris junkie. But I would need years more practice to get really good at it.

http://tleaves.com/2009/07/28/pictures-of-paris/

[Davie Hudson]

I never went out to find a theme but fell into one (along with other people) , I'm a great believer in working with what you've got and being as I live within an hour of the Scottish Highlands and I love doing landscape photography and I think I'm good at it

[amcananey]

Richard Howe's project is amazing and inspirational. I am always impressed that people even undertake something as monumental as that project, let alone complete it. And the work is thoroughly engrossing. Well done!

Best,
Adam

[alex-virt]

Last year I found an interesting though little morbid theme I called "Flowers of the dead":

Some more here:
http://alex-virt.blogspot.com/2009/11/random-pics-from-polish-cemetery.html

http://alex-virt.blogspot.com/2009/11/polish-cemetery-part-ii.html

I'd like to return to it soon, as late autumn is the best time for this. Would be nice to combine it with the "Leica Year" I just started. Unfortunately, my "Leica" of choice – the Samsung NX10 with 30mm/f2 pancake – isn't very good for close up. In those cases I will cheat a bit and use Sigma SD14 with 28/1.8 – same focal length, but much better macro.

[Hans Muus]

Themes also have the advantage of resulting in a series (and I start calling it a series from two photos onwards). And a series (again, however small) tells much more about this particular photographer, this particular vision than a single picture, as that just might have been the product of chance. (And that's why humility always befits the photographer - but that is another matter.)

[James McDermott]

re: Richard Howe's marvellous project: the building on the south-eastern corner of 81st and West End Avenue - an Englishman abroad (viz: yours truly), lived on its 9th floor in 2000/1, clattering out his first book while the Y-chromosomeless half of the partnership got on with the sordid business of keeping the bailiffs and starvation at bay. I notice no memorial plaque to that effect, however, that might otherwise edify the passing local and his/her bespoke-suited poodle (v. common on that stretch of the Ave).

Ah, those pre-digital days. My own, far more modest take on Manhattan was recorded entirely through the taking lens of a Rolleiflex T.

[Sandro Siragusa]

I prefer not to shoot to themes but to shoot what interests me, which perhaps is why I am drawn to photographers like Elliott Erwitt and Gunnar Smolianksy (whose first monograph, covering 50 yhears of work, came out last year).

Themes emerge unbidden in time whether we like it or not. No reason to restrict oneself to looking for shots that fit a theme, as one might miss out on pictures that don't fit the assignment.

[Ken Tanaka]

I've little to add here, except to join the chorus of those who advocate project-propelled photography. The best work is often the result of propulsion (and, yes, even compulsion propulsion). Exhibit A: This thread is exposing some really wonderful work that should convince anyone with any camera to adopt one, or more, projects.

I am continuously working on themed rails, as evidenced by some of my online collections. I offer a few of my own projects to the collection we're gathering here.

Of">http://kentanaka.zenfolio.com/p587626973">Of Dreams did become a book last year. That's a good way to bring closure to a project, although I continue to add work to the collection.

Metropolis is perhaps 80% toward intermediate closure (book), although I'll probably be shooting it the rest of my life.

Themes and project need not be anchored around tangible things or specific venues. They can be sensory or emotionally-anchored. Cold Stares, for example. Or finding imagery in decaying pavement.

I am really enjoying seeing others work along these lines here...Post more!

[Robin Dreyer]

Someone above mentioned the discussion of this topic in "On Being a Photographer," by Bill Jay and David Hurn. Bill Jay also wrote an essay titled, "The Thing Itself," which covers essentially the same material and is one of the best things ever written about photography. I know it's been mentioned before on this blog (by me, among others), but it's dead relevant to this topic. You can download it here: http://www.billjayonphotography.com/writings2.html

[Gary Nylander]

I guess I will be one of the cellar dwellers and make a late post to this thread on Shooting to a Theme and add a few of my thoughts. I work as a full time newspaper photographer at a small newspaper in Kelowna, B.C, Canada and throughout out my 32 year career I have always loved to get out and photograph on my time off including holidays, but what to shoot ? certainly not more accidents and fires. About 20 years or so ago I began working with a 4 x 5 view camera, which I thought would be a lot of fun to use and challenging. I'm not sure if any of my work is thematic but in terms of a theme, almost all of my work is in black and white and the subjects range from landscape images of Western Canada, ( in my back yard sort of ) plus, still life, portraits and nudes. Also sometimes I shoot themes within themes, like a series landscape images of trees or driftwood logs on the beach. Although I wouldn't want to pass up on a great picture possibility if its just a single image and doesn't fit into a theme, usually down the road I will find a place for that orphaned image, but all in all its great to have a theme to work towards, I think it gives more direction to one's work.

[Tim]

If you've not encountered Blipfoto(.com) yet, you should: a photo a day, no more and preferably no fewer, whatever you want.
I found adding a new social/sharing site a good excuse to create one theme in life: black&white "landscape intimates" of things I find in a half-mile stretch whilst walking the dogs, much as you say. Weekdays, that's what I shoot. (The sense of community's excellent, too.)

[Poagao]

I've been wary of "thematic" photography after seeing far too many books with repetitive photography. To me, the idea of a theme should come naturally from inside the photographer, to be found and discerned at a later point. This way, deeper, more meaningful and interesting, thoughtful work can be produced, IMHO.

That said, the idea may be a useful tool for photographers who don't have a sufficient sense of direction in their art, or, like me, who are easily distracted ;)

[Driver8]

"Getting out of the house with a camera in your hand is a very underrated essential component of good photography."

Mike, this may be 95% of photography. We all enjoy yappin' about which camera, the best lens, film vs. digital, etc., but none of this matters when you're sitting in front of a computer. The pictures don't take themselves - just go out and shoot!

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I think we've gotten to "90% of life is showing up". Which is true, so there's no harm in having gotten there.

(But, Driver8, people said the same thing about darkrooms. "You're not taking pictures when you're standing in the dark!" In fact, you have to do post-processing and get the pictures to where people can see them, or you might as well not take them.)

[Lara]

http://www.52suburbs.com/

A Sydney photographer seeks out a different suburb of Sydney each week and photographs it. Preferably one she hasn't been to before.

I'm sure TOP fans who live in big cities will relate. I know there are parts of Sydney I simply have never been to.

Great way to get out shooting (and to get a book deal!!).

Another great theme photographer from Sydney: http://www.aquabumps.com/

Also on Facebook - search for "Aquabumps".

[David Crotin]

Here's an interesting theme for a blog-based photoshoot. The theme itself is obviously still very young but the series is very interesting, creative, cute and funny.

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/