DavidMillier
Forum Pro
Jim has banged on about the usefulness of working in projects/series/portfolios for a long time (rather than single one-off shots) and about the creative value of concentrating your mind around a theme.
I've generally been a "serendipitous" photographer - I just go somewhere and shoot what I find without any preconceptions. However, the Royal Photographic Society Distinction programmes are all based around the idea of a "set" or "panel" of linked images presented in such as way that the panel itself is also a composition made up of the individual images. I did the LRPS Distinction last year and I've been thinking about the requirements of the next level, the Associate Distinction, ever since.
The ARPS requires you to work to a theme and to supply a "Statement of Intent" and to demonstrate that your panel of images complies with your intent.
That's just a fancy way of doing a project/series/portfolio and I have recognised that I need to transform myself from a random picture photographer into an organised project-based photographer. Not easy after so many years of the old way.
I have given a great deal of thought to this, and have identified about 50 or so rough projects I could work on. I'm currently working on three or four of these [no deadlines decided
].
Alongside the identification of suitable project ideas, I've also been thinking about types of outputs that could result from these projects. I've now consolidated those ideas and arrived at the following outputs I will produce for each completed project:
1. A set of tagged images grouped into a portfolio within my editing software library that I can view as a slideshow
2. A rolling gallery of approx 20 images on a dedicated projects section of my website that consist of my favourite images from a project to date
3. A 16" framed print consisting of a grid of 9 small images representing the project that respects the RPS's panel composition conventions
4. A slim A4 archival portfolio storage box containing a title page, a page with the statement of intent, a location map and up to 50 A4 titled loose prints representing the entire project
5. A complementary fat A4 archival portfolio storage box containing 10 mounted/matted A4 prints of the best images intended for handling and viewing. More substantial and robust than the loose print portfolio and more of an "artefact" to experience.
6. A selection of 12-20 12" prints matted for framing in 16" frames. These represent candidate ARPS Distinction panels. To be stored in A2 archival portfolio storage boxes. The intent with these is that they would be periodically taken from storage, framed, hung on the wall and viewed as an ARPS panel. I have identified a space in my stairwell large enough to display one such a panel. I need to figure out a suitable handing arrangement (maybe wires?) that would allow me to rotate out different panels.
7. A book. This may be a commercial Blurb style digital printed book, but I really want to make and handbind my own books from inkjet prints. That would seem like a satisfying artistic artefact to me. Handcrafted!
Progress...
Over the last year I've been practising these various output types using backcatalogue images. I've printed some 9 grid image framed prints and hung them on the wall, I've sorted through my back catalogue of prints (previously just a heap of paper) and organised them into archive boxes. I've collected together matted (unframed) prints into other storage box collections. I've practised beginner bookbinding using cheap photocopying paper (with mixed success so far).
I've also put together 3 A4 archive boxes of titled loose prints with title pages and statements of intent from my ongoing new projects (they seem quite nice). And today (at last!), I printed and framed my first 9 image grid from part 1 of my very first project (Infrared images of round-towered churches of East Anglia), and it's on the wall. The first milestone!
The next task this week is to select 10 of the best from this project and mat them as a portfolio collection in a bigger storage box.
I'm under way at last (only took me 15 months to organise myself)
--
2024: Awarded Royal Photographic Society LRPS Distinction
Photo of the day: https://www.whisperingcat.co.uk/wp/photo-of-the-day-2025/
Website: https://www.whisperingcat.co.uk/wp/
DPReview gallery: https://www.dpreview.com/galleries/0286305481
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmillier/ (very old!)
I've generally been a "serendipitous" photographer - I just go somewhere and shoot what I find without any preconceptions. However, the Royal Photographic Society Distinction programmes are all based around the idea of a "set" or "panel" of linked images presented in such as way that the panel itself is also a composition made up of the individual images. I did the LRPS Distinction last year and I've been thinking about the requirements of the next level, the Associate Distinction, ever since.
The ARPS requires you to work to a theme and to supply a "Statement of Intent" and to demonstrate that your panel of images complies with your intent.
That's just a fancy way of doing a project/series/portfolio and I have recognised that I need to transform myself from a random picture photographer into an organised project-based photographer. Not easy after so many years of the old way.
I have given a great deal of thought to this, and have identified about 50 or so rough projects I could work on. I'm currently working on three or four of these [no deadlines decided
].Alongside the identification of suitable project ideas, I've also been thinking about types of outputs that could result from these projects. I've now consolidated those ideas and arrived at the following outputs I will produce for each completed project:
1. A set of tagged images grouped into a portfolio within my editing software library that I can view as a slideshow
2. A rolling gallery of approx 20 images on a dedicated projects section of my website that consist of my favourite images from a project to date
3. A 16" framed print consisting of a grid of 9 small images representing the project that respects the RPS's panel composition conventions
4. A slim A4 archival portfolio storage box containing a title page, a page with the statement of intent, a location map and up to 50 A4 titled loose prints representing the entire project
5. A complementary fat A4 archival portfolio storage box containing 10 mounted/matted A4 prints of the best images intended for handling and viewing. More substantial and robust than the loose print portfolio and more of an "artefact" to experience.
6. A selection of 12-20 12" prints matted for framing in 16" frames. These represent candidate ARPS Distinction panels. To be stored in A2 archival portfolio storage boxes. The intent with these is that they would be periodically taken from storage, framed, hung on the wall and viewed as an ARPS panel. I have identified a space in my stairwell large enough to display one such a panel. I need to figure out a suitable handing arrangement (maybe wires?) that would allow me to rotate out different panels.
7. A book. This may be a commercial Blurb style digital printed book, but I really want to make and handbind my own books from inkjet prints. That would seem like a satisfying artistic artefact to me. Handcrafted!
Progress...
Over the last year I've been practising these various output types using backcatalogue images. I've printed some 9 grid image framed prints and hung them on the wall, I've sorted through my back catalogue of prints (previously just a heap of paper) and organised them into archive boxes. I've collected together matted (unframed) prints into other storage box collections. I've practised beginner bookbinding using cheap photocopying paper (with mixed success so far).
I've also put together 3 A4 archive boxes of titled loose prints with title pages and statements of intent from my ongoing new projects (they seem quite nice). And today (at last!), I printed and framed my first 9 image grid from part 1 of my very first project (Infrared images of round-towered churches of East Anglia), and it's on the wall. The first milestone!
The next task this week is to select 10 of the best from this project and mat them as a portfolio collection in a bigger storage box.
I'm under way at last (only took me 15 months to organise myself)
--
2024: Awarded Royal Photographic Society LRPS Distinction
Photo of the day: https://www.whisperingcat.co.uk/wp/photo-of-the-day-2025/
Website: https://www.whisperingcat.co.uk/wp/
DPReview gallery: https://www.dpreview.com/galleries/0286305481
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmillier/ (very old!)
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Having printed a few of these out I quite like the approach, images, well we can work on that as a photographer, narrative, thats just words, but a poem really is tough. I quite like the haiku approach, mainly because there aren't many words involved, but at least its opened my eyes to a new thing, which as an IT/Business Change programme manager is way outside my comfort zone!
