Photography as sketchbook

I have a large collection of sketchbooks and journals. All 98% empty. Artists are supposed to keep sketchbooks. I've been told, that we should be introspective and keep journals with our profound thoughts and creative musings. I am a semi-competent writer, and a better than average artist (so I have been told), but miserable at documentation.

This blog is the only journal-like-thing I have managed to keep going for any length of time!

One of my art professors, Walter Hamady, kept hand-bound, beautifully written and embellished journals. They were on hand made papers, and were works of beauty - meant to last the ages. My friend Lorie posts beautiful images from her sketchbook pages. Other friends have kept sketchbooks that were achingly inspirational; musings, sketches and collections of ephemera! I have scraps of paper, sometimes, kept in a cardboard box, and my collection of journals and sketchbooks that have the first pages desecrated with horrible attempts at self-conscience profundity.

But now I have photos. Hundreds - verging on thousands - not taken for reproduction or sales or even journalistic documentation (with the notable exception of the ones of my family). They are exercise for my eyes. They are calisthenics for my knowledge of design and composition. They slow me down and make me think and work - hard.

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Taking a photo makes me see texture, and light and space. It makes me stop and study what I am seeing. It makes me edit my thoughts, my sight, and the context around me. They become a journal of my days, my moods, my thoughts. In retrospective viewing, they reveal paths of thought and style I didn't know existed. They tell me a lot about how and what I see.

I love to work with a theme if I have nothing particular in mind... one day close-ups of rusty textures, one day reflections in windows, one day lighting and so on. I am in a couple of Facebook Photo groups that are really wonderful at suggesting themes or ideas to pursue.

Here is a slide show of my 'sketches' of last week's Farm Market.

At  first I just snapped away in 'automatic' mode with my trusty Fuji. but soon I found out that to 'sketch' the right photo, I needed to be able to adjust the depth-of-field, and pick an exposure. Just like sometimes you want to sketch in color, and sometimes in black and white - the same applies to photo sketching. So I upgraded the camera and learned more about my manual settings.

Photography is an art in itself. A laudable and incredibly diverse one. But not one that I (at least for now) find a satisfactory final artifact of my creativity. I use it as the basis of my fiber art; Sometimes quite literally when it is printed as an image in my whole cloth quilt pieces. More often, as the inspiration for the textures or colors in other pieces. It isn't about the specific photographic image for me. It is about taking that to a more universal place of color, texture, and emotion through the addition of other fabric, objects, and embellishments. In the end, I hope the photo is integrated with the fiber art to create something much more layered - both figuratively and literally - than the photo alone.   Here is one example of that idea (click on either to see larger):

the photo 'sketch'

the finished fiber art

Here is a piece that uses seven different photos within the final piece: