Several years ago I went to a W. Eugene Smith exhibition, I remember seeing the contact sheets and maybe 1 or two were "iconic" shots but the rest were alternatives or even just what looked like shots to use up the roll. Seeing that, & (like Steve) the Magnum book, made me go a lot easier on myself with how critical I was about how many great shots I was getting per roll. I think we can get over critical on ourselves these days because of the pressure to share what we shoot and if we shoot several rolls but only want to share one immediately, we can feel like we failed… which definitely isn't the case.
New subscriber. I recently bought the MAGNUM Contact Sheets book and what impressed me most was how few images from a roll were picked by each "iconic" photographer as being "good enough". I have been shooting film since the early 70s, bought my first digital camera in 2005, and came back to film in 2020 at the height of all the COVID restrictions and lockdowns when looking for something meaningful to do in photography. At my age I no longer care about selling my work but continue for the joy of doing it. Looking forward to your articles.
Several years ago I went to a W. Eugene Smith exhibition, I remember seeing the contact sheets and maybe 1 or two were "iconic" shots but the rest were alternatives or even just what looked like shots to use up the roll. Seeing that, & (like Steve) the Magnum book, made me go a lot easier on myself with how critical I was about how many great shots I was getting per roll. I think we can get over critical on ourselves these days because of the pressure to share what we shoot and if we shoot several rolls but only want to share one immediately, we can feel like we failed… which definitely isn't the case.
New subscriber. I recently bought the MAGNUM Contact Sheets book and what impressed me most was how few images from a roll were picked by each "iconic" photographer as being "good enough". I have been shooting film since the early 70s, bought my first digital camera in 2005, and came back to film in 2020 at the height of all the COVID restrictions and lockdowns when looking for something meaningful to do in photography. At my age I no longer care about selling my work but continue for the joy of doing it. Looking forward to your articles.