To be or not to be, is that really the question? I wish there was only one answer when it comes to asking what is fine art photography. I recently met with Sera Davis, of Davis Art Advisory here in Nashville and I left excited and with my brain hurting!! So many new thoughts to think about, possible directions to go in regards to my fine art photography. What market do I want to be in? What images do I want to explore further and create a body of work out of it? I have tended to photograph things rather spontaneously, which is good, and then pick my favorite one of the bunch and add those to my other favorite images. The ending result are a lot of great images that don't necessarily belong in the same "family." My session with Sera has provided me a lot of great new challenges to my ways of thinking about photography...immediately I began to (literally) see things differently driving home. I always feel compelled to pull the car over and shoot something but on that drive home, I just noticed what drew me in and asked myself why and what could I do with that...how could that be part of a story of images. Sera says Fine Art is a lot more mental that most people realize. It's a challenge to those of us who are so visually motivated to stop and increase the value of an image by putting thought behind it and making it mean more than just the beauty or interest it holds for us.
I am going to put some time and thought into what goes up on my yet-to-be-launched fine art photography site...angelahowellphotography.com. I want to deliberate on my message a bit more. I definitely see a story building since I am drawn to photograph certain themes over and over. So my question of my images is now "To speak or not to speak." I'm sure if I listen long enough, I'll figure out what they are trying to say.
