Final Thoughts on Process vs. Project

I wanted to give my take on Process vs. Project before we move on.

Preamble
However, my opinion here is based on observation; I'm speaking with my "thinking of others" hat on rather than merely speaking for myself. I started teaching photography in 1984 as a fourth-year student intern, and the only time I've been away from the field was a short stint as Senior Editor of Model Railroader magazine. Even there I helped judge the magazine's annual photo contest and interacted with the publishing company's photography staff. I don't know a lot of famous photographers and I've never worked directly in the camera industry or for an advertising agency, but I've engaged directly and indirectly with students, hobbyists, and photography enthusiasts for almost all of my working life.

Projects help
First of all, I agree with Darlene Almeda, who noted that photographing randomly and in a desultory way is setting herself up for failure. She's right that being aimless and unfocused, no puns intended, generally leads to dissatisfaction, or, perhaps, less satisfaction than might otherwise be available.

My observation has been that photography is more rewarding when you have some sort of defined project you're pursuing. For one thing, it divides the time that you're concentrating completely on photography from non-photographing time, and that helps. For another, it helps greatly in minimizing distraction—does it fit the project or not? If it doesn't, leave it till later.

This might appear to be a contradiction, but I don't think it is: when you find yourself engaged in a project that's either not working or not getting your juices flowing, it's okay to shut it down and think up something else to do. Is it a contradiction to a.) decide to finish every book you start, yet b.) bail on a book a third of the way through when it's just not holding your interest? I don't think it is, actually. You mean to finish every book; your intention is to finish. And mostly you do. But in select cases where you realize you're wasting your time, you don't hesitate to cut your losses. You're decisive in both cases. Same with photography projects.

I also don't think it's a contradiction to design projects that are highly process-oriented. Examples might be two projects that everybody knows about, or should: Scott Shuman's Sartorialist blog (there are also several books), for which he shoots "found fashion" (you might say), giving up all control of clothes, makeup and hairstyle—things most fashion photographers control tightly—to the individuals he finds on the street, who have, obviously, dressed themselves. The second is Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York project. It's a portrait project, but it's not primarily visual; he's finding people whose stories he can briefly tell, almost as if he is introducing his readers to a cross-section of the population. Another example of a process-oriented project might be those who trawl Google Street View for happenstance compositions that strike them as mimicking deliberative art.

Mechanical Goals
Finally, I think projects can be defined in such a way that they primarily help you to work. I think of these as "mechanical goals." For instance, my rule for this Spring is going to be to leave the house with the camera and stop to take the first picture within the first twelve minutes. This is intended to help me get over the tendency I have to drive around forever without taking a picture because I don't see something that is "worth stopping for." I find that when I just get started, I do better. (My rule with my heart-health exercising is that I have to go to the Community Center, change into my gym shoes [trainers, in Brit-speak], and sit or stand on one of the cardio machines. That's all. If I do that, I have done the minimum needed to help establish the habit, even if I'm in such a rush that I have to then leave right away, something that hasn't actually happened yet.) A good example of a mechanical goal is to ask strangers on the street for permission to make a portrait of them until you rack up X number of refusals. This helps you approach people; and it makes a refusal into a success as opposed to a failure. I think you see the point.

Energy
Please hear me here: you own your own photography. It's always been my position that anyone can do anything they want to as long as they're not hurting someone else. I'm not telling you what to do, and you're are under no obligation to agree with my ideas about this. This is just what I think after years of watching people engaging in photographing, that's all. So don't feel you're being attacked or have reason to defend yourself. You aren't, and don't. My words are suggestions only. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Having said that, I'll add one last thing: if you dislike projects, the reason might be that you're not thinking of the concept flexibly enough. Maybe you just haven't found the right one from the options available to you (because not everything is available to everyone). When I taught, I noticed that students, at least—and maybe I could expand that and say "people"—tend to have rigid and literal ideas of what a project must be. There is nothing it must be. The proof is in the pudding: if it liberates you and make you free, and charges your work with energy, and enables further creativity, then it's most likely a well-chosen project. If it limits and frustrates you and feels like toil or drudgery, then go back to the drawing board. That's the last point: look for the energy the project idea gives you. That's the test. If a project has energy, creates energy, and energizes you to work, that's how you know you're on to something. If the opposite happens, you know what that means too.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

JH (partial comment): " To offer a clarification on the 'process or project' person, one should understand it's not a value judgement. The world needs both kinds and either way can be personally satisfying. A project person like me can thoroughly enjoy a process. For example, I used to create large custom calendars for friends' presents every holiday season. One year the photos were of cross sections of fruit from our farm, backlit by an old slide viewer. The process of creating those photos was extremely satisfying—trying ways to section fruit and vegetables to get the best visual effects, working with exposure to bring out the best detail, then working with all the images to get a consistent version for the calendar. I loved the calendar but the process of making it was equally satisfying."

Rich Beaubien: "You may remember this fellow. If not, enjoy....

"For two-plus years (December 2004 to June 2007), Travis Ruse, via a blog named Express Train, produced some fine photography work in what you call 'Mechanical Goals' (I call it Practice). I loved his exercise to get a photo in the 90-minute subway trip going back and forth to work each day. I have it bookmarked and go back to browse every once in a while. There's no book, nothing, just this archive. Last I heard he was working as a photo editor, or some such appellation, at Inc. magazine. There are many gems."

Nigel Voak: "This a subject very dear to me. When I finished working for our local theatre, my photography became aimless and I lost a lot of interest in photography after a while. When I did theatrical photography, I had a brief, and the subject was clear to me. I knew beforehand exactly what I was going to photograph. It shows in the pictures.

"When I returned to photography as a pastime, I found the answer was to set myself a project that would end up in a Blurb book. Obviously I chose subjects I am really interested in, or which solves some photographic problem. A project can have tight or flexible subject boundaries. My projects sometimes change direction mid-project, and sub-projects are spun off.

"Some example of my projects are:

• The Gonzagas: A mostly architectural exploration of a particular area around Mantua, ruled by the Gonzaga. I wanted to convey the sleepy atmosphere of this area.
• Crostolo: I tried to force myself to find interesting angles and pictures along a squalid little urban river that runs through my town. This was all about seeing.
• Romanesque: This sprawling never-ending project is an exploration and documentation of Romanesque architecture in Northern Italy. This is all about the use of shift lenses and my fascination with the architecture and art of this period.

Photo by Nigel Voak

"Most of my projects need a lot of planning and research, and as a consequence my photography is more focused. You can see some e-book links on my blog."

 

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

I think your synopsis is good, Mike. Projects may be work units within a process. But more closely projects may involve processes.

Now let’s move on to photographic projects and processes!

[s.wolters]

Scott Shumann’s Sartoralist and Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York remind me of the long lasting project Exactitudes by Arie Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek. They are based in Rotterdam but expanded their concept all over the world. It’s a simple idea. But they went on and on and now it not only has an anthropological value but also a historical one.
(Click on the pages to enlarge).
https://exactitudes.com/

[James Bullard]

I consider myself an expert photographer having been at it since age 13 (I'm now 78), have graduated from two schools of photography, taught in one of them briefly, and have been a 'professional', meaning that it was my job and it paid my bills at various points full-time or part-time. Doing "projects" feels like a job to me. I've done a few non-paid self-assigned projects but I find that I burn out quickly on them. A dozen or two photos into a project and it feels repetitive. It feels like a job.

My photography has evolved to the point that it isn't about the act of photographing anymore than holding a pen is the point of writing. I'm still interested in learning the technical aspects but my photography isn't an end in itself. It's a tool for relating to the world around me, to the things and (occasionally) people who interest or excite me. It is a method for connecting with my subject matter on a deeper level. Some days I will make no photographs. Some weeks I make no photographs. I don't consider the lack of photos so much a failure or lapse as it reflects a lull in my enthusiasm for life and experiencing the world around me. Is photography as a way of relating a "project"?

[Rob de Loe]

I have not made many worthwhile photographs while wandering around purposelessly.

To do work that I think is worth doing, I need a project to provide focus, discipline, audience, format, approach, goals -- everything.

Caveat: There can be real value in roaming around aimlessly with a camera, snapping away at things if that provides exercise (to keep in the groove), allows for practising different ways of working, trying out different subjects, or just exploring ideas. Sometimes projects emerge from this kind of photography.

[William Giokas]

People who are photographer see the world differently that the average person. Just go out and shoot. You don't need to make a project out of it. By obsessing on the project rather than actually taking a photograph limits your creative process.

[Dave Millier]

Gym shoes does just fine for sports footwear over here. As does plimsolls, daps and tennis shoes, basketball boots and probably quite a few others. Trainers here tend to be things that look like football (soccer) boots but without the studs. At least they started out that way, but fashion took over and now they can look like tennis shoes, football boots, hiking boots and even things you'd expect to have wheels or blades bolted to the sole.

Thinking a bit about your struggles with novel length works, I suspect one of your issues is that novels tend to be written by people who feel compelled to write them rather than by people who think they ought to. It gets them over the hurdles. My 16 year old daughter has written several fan fiction novels and has several more on the goal. She spends her breaks on the garden swing acting out the plots in her head. She just can't stop writing. I don't think it matters if it ever amounts to anything, but you need that uncontrollable obsession, I suspect.

[JH]

"when you find yourself engaged in a project that's either not working or not getting your juices flowing, it's okay to shut it down and think up something else to do."
I learned this from a bastard of a boss many years ago. He was adamant that once you could tell a project was in trouble and unfixable, stop it and walk away immediately to cut your losses. (Humorous aside: he was also the guy who liked 3 martini lunches and during one told a magazine editor about a project that was one of those failures - "Every product shipped crapped out," were his words.)
But I would add that it's good - and generally important - to understand why it failed and see if it implies changes to the next or other projects.
I apply these principles to almost everything I do - writing and business especially. I've had 13 million words published but probably have written another million that were discarded. I evaluate business related processes and products regularly and stop the ones that don't work out.

This principle holds for things too. I loved the Nikon D100, didn't like the D200 and sold it quickly, loved the D300 and the pictures show that. I used Oly M4/3 for almost a decade before I bought a Pen-F from the looks but never liked using it - gone. I've done the same with cars, kept several only a few months before I sold them because I never bonded with them.

To offer a clarification on the "process or project" person, one should understand it's not a value judgement. The world needs both kinds and either way can be personally satisfying. A project person like me can thoroughly enjoy a process. For example, I used to create large custom calendars for friends' presents every holiday season. One year the photos were of cross sections of fruit from our farm, backlit by an old slide viewer. The process of creating those photos was extremely satisfying - trying ways to section fruit and vegetables to get the best visual effects, working with exposure to bring out the best detail, then working with all the images to get a consistent version for the calendar. I loved the calendar but the process of making it was equally satisfying.

[Ernest Zarate]

I’m really glad you added that section titled Energy. For me, that’s a much better and more applicable way of describing how I work. “Project” and “Process” (for me) are too rigid, narrow, and unnecessarily contained concepts for creative work. Once something is named (e.g., “car” or “tree”), it’s hard for many to see beyond that name.

“Energy,” on the other hand (for me) is fluid and indefinite enough to be flexible to contain quite a lot of differences. Plus, it echoes what I said some time ago re: this line of thought you’ve been exploring - my work is dependent on my reaction and interaction (energy) to my work. If it’s stimulating, challenging, satisfying, and even frustrating to me, it will engage me and keep me working on it.

I’ve leaned more into Lee Friedlander’s description he noted in his book, “Self Portrait”: “These self portraits… we’re not done as a specific preoccupation… they came about slowly and not with a plan but more of a discovery each time.” Who knows if this is literally true? Maybe Friedlander. But I can say (for me), I’ve found that the results in my work and looking at my own work is the best way to discover where it’s taking me. I let my eye dictate where I’m going rather than my head.

And no I don’t feel attacked or needing to defend myself. Merely presenting a different way of working.

As always, a stimulating piece, Michael.

[Mark Sampson]

"...photography is more rewarding when you have some sort of defined project you're pursuing."
I think it was the late Bill Jay who wrote an article called "The Subject Matters". Might have been Fred Picker; I can't remember now. But there it is, in three words.