One of the joys of photography is that a great deal of it happens by accident. However, sometimes we do things on purpose. And every so often, we discover themes in our photography - which we promptly (or gradually) organize into projects. Eventually, a project may result in a body of work that's broad enough and interesting enough that we could hang it as a show; at that point, we call it a portfolio. Some of these are individual projects; others are joint endeavors.
Currently, we have three portfolios and several ongoing projects. Some photographs from these projects are available on this Web site; others are still in progress. Any photograph that is part of a project is so noted in its display page.
Our current portfolios are:
This is the longest-running project either of us has. Will first visited Folklife in 2000, and was so overwhelmed by the people playing in and around the International Fountain that he forgot about the music (but not the food.) He came home with eight rolls of film and a sunburn, and has been back every year since.
Both Will and Susan have been taking pictures at parades and other public events for a long time, but it's only recently that we realized we have a project going and started organizing pictures. Will mostly responds to the social energy of a parade, and the responses it provokes in others; Susan is fascinated by how people choose to publicly display themselves.
Will introduced a novel style of printing with his four images in the Selections from Promenade show. It began as a way to express his impressions of the creative lunacy surrounding the Fremont Solstice Parade, and has since ballooned in ways he never expected.
Our current projects are:
Susan was somewhat surprised to realize she's been taking close-up and unusual-angle pictures of machinery and functional architecture for years. She enjoys bringing the grace out of the machine.
Will started this project by accident: he missed the chance to work on the Promenade portfolio, and decided instead to apply the Hard Color, Soft Light technique to street portraits. All we know so far is that the portraits were an absolute hoot to take (Thanks to everyone who posed -- W.) We're still developing and scanning the film; the first images should start showing up here by the middle of the week.
Will and Susan both love the Oregon coast. Susan introduced Will to Short Sand beach and the trails around it, and we return at least once every year.
Inspiration strikes in the most unexpected places - in this case, a Concord grape arbor near Will's mother's house.
This project is in its infancy. So far, Will's technique for photographing people has been to carry a camera someplace interesting and hope for the best. He's had some good luck that way (e.g. Fountains and Promenade), but he would like to learn to photograph people on purpose.