I recently completed a course entitled Conceptual Photography at the Ontario Centre for Arts & Design. A different focus than other photography courses or workshops I have attended; it was conceptual as promised. Ultimately the course was about the process and not specific technologies or techniques. The end result — the outcome — of the process is a portfolio of some 10-20 photographs, although the number is really not important nor is it important that photographs be the final medium of communications.
Like many other forms of photography the portfolio should communicate some message, which of course is up to the author to determine. A subject is established in the context of the author’s likes, dislikes, passions and beliefs. Again, this is like most other art forms that, without feeling, emotion or passion, the result is flat.
The process then starts from this point within the context; a subject is selected; it is researched; ideas are developed, they evolve, they turn, they mature, they change. The subject is focused, the message refined. The great difficulty is narrowing the focus; not biting off more than can be chewed.
My starting point was transmission towers. Those structures used to convey the power that drives our daily life.
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