Making Process

I have had some unplanned downtime to think about the meaning of my photographs.  I wonder if being process oriented keeps me from knowing what my work is about.  My images speak to me but often in disparate ways without a common thread.  The connection they share is they are mine and I make them happen.  They are fragments of my small world.  This much I know.

My process as an artist is intentionally haphazard.  I believe that randomness keeps my image-making fresh.  I do not take my camera everywhere I go but pick it up when compelled.  When I was worked as a newspaper photographer I sought stories to tell.  But now, working for myself and creating images for their own sake is more complicated - -  especially when asked what it is that I photograph.  My response is "anything and everything."  Ambiguous.  Yet I can't find a better answer.

I stumble upon inspiration, finding it tangled in a thick hedge.  A "Whoozit" catches my eye as I walk through my neighborhood.  How did it land there and had anyone noticed it astray?  My guess is that it was swiftly replaced with a new, cleaner version.  The child who lost it probably never knew it disappeared.

There is something about this process that grabs, holds and propels me forward.  The photographs become markers and I drift in between them.  While I continue to ponder the larger meaning of my work one thing is beyond question, uncertainty is key.