Found in Kitsap – the process

Found in Kitsap – the process

greetings and salutations!

hope this first week of October is treating you all well. I think the heat wave in Los Angeles has finally broke. it will be nice to not have any more 90ยบ+ days. *knocks on wood*.

about a month ago I first introduced y’all to the genesis and inspiration for the “Found in Kitsap” (#FOUNDinKITSAP) project. if you need a refresher, check it out here.

now I’m going to let you in on a bit of my process. after I’d unpacked the film and developed the pictures, I selected my, um…”selects.” this consisted of me laying out the pictures on the floor of my studio apartment and then “tagging” the ones I liked with bits of post-it paper. it was important to not just to get “my favorite” pictures, but to get a representative sample of photos. I wanted to have a group of photos that would work TOGETHER more than just “be cool” on their own.

check out this tweet to see what it looked like.

after I had a group of selects I set them aside for a few days. then when I felt fresh again, revisited all the photos. there weren’t many that I’d overlooked the first time that stood out to me, but I grabbed those that did and included them. next I inserted each of these photos into a word document on their own individual pages. then I printed all 100+ pages and put them into a 3 ring binder.

over the following months this binder would accompany me to Mammoth, Bremerton, San Diego, and Hawaii. during this time I began first to make general notes. then I began to reorganize the order of the photos to make an over all structure to the project. I wasn’t trying to make a “cohesive narrative” per se, but I did want to have a defined and purposeful flow. at the onset I didn’t know what this would entail, but I knew that if I spent enough time with the material a story would emerge.

so every week I’d spend hours just looking through the binder, making notes, moving photos around, thinking, listening to music…and of course drinking some sort of tasty beverage. eventually the idea came to me. I knew how I’d organize the book. and that was….

haha! I’m not going to tell you that here! you’re going to have to buy the book and discover it for yourself =)

sorry for the tease, couldn’t resist.

as I continued new photos were added, old photos were removed, and thoughts and ideas for stories began to emerge. I would write these down on each photo’s sheet, often dating the notes so I could track my thinking.

eventually I had enough notes on enough pages to begin writing stories. what stories you may ask? well each photo in the book will have it’s own unique story. sometimes told by the photographer, sometimes about the instance being portrayed, sometimes an entirely different form like a list or a poem. each one should have its own special voice – yet still contribute towards the greater themes and goals.

that means I’m basically writing 100 short stories… it’s been fun and challenging so far, but I still have a lot more to do.

with that in mind, I’ll bring this to a close. but first, here is a scan of one of my pages. on the top left you can see the original date it was printed and then the handwritten notes I’ve made over the last few months.

Snow Day with notes

let me know if you have any questions on the project or the process!

-Luke

3 Comments
  • shirlene
    Posted at 20:49h, 17 October Reply

    I am so impressed with this photo project you are doing…impressed at the process you are establishing to…”come what may”. The suspense of what is just around the corner is mounting. I look forward to following your accounts of your progress. lanore49

    • Luke
      Posted at 06:49h, 19 October Reply

      thanks Shirlene! it’s been quite an adventure all around.

  • lanore
    Posted at 12:36h, 19 October Reply

    oops, last comment was by me but I didn’t change Shirlene’s info so it looked like she sent it.
    But I’m sure she would agree with me. = )

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