8) Research: Words Without Pictures, Online Photographic Thinking, Jason Evans - 29/11/17

One of the texts Nick suggested for me to read for this 'Critical Making and Reflection' task was 'Words Without Pictures', based on online photographic thinking. My notes from the essay can be seen below, as well as scans of the essay itself.

The first point of interest I found in the essay was Evans talking about his website 'The Daily Nice', where he says his images "are always of something that was its own reward and that made me happy at the moment when I found it". He also stated that he captures the ephemeral aspects of photography, which is something I've been actively doing with my 35mm point and shoot work, trying to capture the spontaneous, short lasting moments that bring me happiness. He doesn't think much about the image itself but more the process of taking it which makes him happy, and I've been getting in this mindset too, especially with my recent shoots in Paris. I also thought it was interesting how he highlighted that posting online is an "entirely affordable process", and I think it's definitely something not to be overlooked in photography. The benefits are also illuminated further as Evans says he reached the biggest audience of his life from this online project, "if an audience is what you prefer, then the internet is for you" - so it really shows the power putting stuff online can have. This is why I'm trying to be a lot more active online, for instance with various Instagram accounts for my photography and specific projects, while I'm also finishing off my website to make live.

Another debate brought up in the essay is the opinions on digital vs analog, with Evans describing it as "different sides of the same coin", which I agreed with. He elaborates further by saying "we are not having our choices taken away from us by the usurping of analog by digital; we just have to expand what photography can be". I like to think of photography as such a wide based medium, and I see analog and digital just as different processes for different effects you're trying to achieve, they're both photography and shouldn't be separated apart from each other or ordered in terms of whats best.

I also found Evans' outlook on the preview screen quite intriguing, and how he doesn't press the delete button if the photo "doesn't look like a picture we formally recognise". I fully agree with this, and even though I haven't been able to quickly delete a lot of my images due to them being on film, I still always consider each image as something that could represent my happiness, even if it doesn't fit the constraints of what a typically good image would look like. As Wolfgang Tillmans said in a recent interview I read, "I never underestimate the importance of the fleeting moment; potentially a good thing can happen at any time and only reveal its full relevance over the course of time". You never know if an image can portray something you want to say until you've reflected on it, and sometimes images can just be an accident that work perfectly.

Overall the essay was quite short but I found some engaging points within it relating to my project, and he also opened my eyes about some of the benefits of posting online, as well as not being too 'delete happy' when shooting.

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