Help! I have too many photos on my hard drive.

Boat reflections, New Zealand

 
I have a problem. A big problem.

I have had to replace my ageing and failing mac with a brand new version, but for 2 weeks it has been sitting unopened in its box. My other half (OH) keeps asking me when I am going to open it. I reply 'when I am ready '.

The reason that I am not ready is because I possess way too many photos, and the thought of sorting them out to get them safely stored on a combination of the new mac and external hard drives feels like an organisational mountain right now. I am not ready to face the mountain; it feels huge.

This is all my own fault. I have my images neatly organised into folders of events and year, but I rarely cull my images. Actually never. Each time I sit down to attempt this, I get drawn into a trip down memory lane. I find images that remind me of all the projects I have thought about over the years, and after deleting maybe five or six I end up processing an old one, or feeling so overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that I give up and find something else to do, even cleaning.....

​

Winter trees, Stanley park, Vancouver

I have a technique for finding images that are buried under a pile of 66,999 images, and that I have totally forgotten about.

I type today's date into my library and look for files that have a name that includes the numbers in the date. For example, yesterday was the 9th of October, so I type 910 into the search panel  and up pop all the images with 910 as part of their filename. I find it a good way to look back through the thousands, without any bias . A lot of surprises pop up. 

​For example the image below is from a walk that I took in my local woods during which I chucked photographs of nature into the pond and hung them from fences and trees. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. But I had fun doing it, and I cant really recall why I felt this urge. 
I probably had an idea for a new project, but as with many of my ideas, it went nowhere.

And that is OK.

​Life would be a lot duller without a few crazy moments alone in the woods.

Also from this '910' search are all of the photos included in this blog article. Below is another one where I question my sanity. At the time I was studying for an MA in book art, and that did tip me into a slightly deranged state of mind. I never did complete the MA, but that's another story.
​Life is too short to spend time not enjoying learning.........

'hello Liezel' on my washing line

​And then there was another burning desire fulfilled; to hang ribbons from a tree and capture the effect of the wind. That was a one day wonder, and no birds or bushes were harmed in the process.

ribbons in the wind

.Some incredibly happy memories appear in the search.

​For all of these images I remember so well the taking. The making.

​ They trigger memories that were locked away, possibly for ever.

Several are from my first artist residency where I wandered the streets and footpaths taking hundreds of photos of water., and which led to the creation of my book 'If I only had more time'. Three weeks went so quickly, and I wished I could have stayed longer, hence the  book's title.

​

Letterpress printing with Nina Rodin on my residency at Trelex, near Geneva.

So how to manage all of these photos? 

What I really need to do is have a massive cull, and get rid of the many duplicates and similar images. Even better would be to be much more ruthless in my initial uploads, deleting all but the best. Going forward this could work, but for now I need about a week of screen time to manage the task of culling and transferring a select few to the new computer.

'If I Only had more Time' - photo book concertina.

I know from experience that projects that don't get done soon after a trip or journey are unlikely ever to be realised. All of my videos from Alaska still lie waiting to be made into a major motion picture movie. Likewise my Latin American journey is more than worthy of a book, but I am now forgetting the details. It is becoming too late.

Making photo books is the best way to create tangible memories in my humble opinion. 
They truly represent my view of the world. 

So here's a plan;

1. spend a week culling in bite sized chunks.
2. spend another choosing which folders are worth keeping
3. spend another week listing all the unmade projects that are worth pursuing
4. Make sure that I have my photos backed up in three places; home, studio and cloud.
5. be brave; get the new Mac out of its box.
6. Transfer just the last three years of images onto the new Mac
7. Load up the new Mac with my image processing and publication software
8. START BEING RUTHLESS!

So let's make a start......

Ladder in a garden ; one for the bin.

Ardnamurchan - a definite keeper.

Clouds over Rye harbour nature reserve ; another for the bin

hair envy series; another lost project.....BIN

Three for the bin. One keeper.
Only 66,996 decisions to go.

​Please wish me luck!  I could be gone for some time......

thought for the day - on personal archives

the tree that dances © caroline fraser 2013

I am way behind as always

been to some fascinating talks and shows, and not had time to put thoughts down on 'paper'

The most thought provoking session was a talk by John Levett on his recent exhibition Retrospeculations with Nick Scammell , in which he explored the issue of personal archive at Goldsmith's College. Sadly the show is now over, so you won't be able to visit it. Mea culpa.

from Retrospeculations by John Levett

John and Nick described the exhibition thus

'A gathering of gatherings made over twenty years; an unfolding; a condensation (Freud) of tremendous fragments (Klee) – in this work, John Levett will respond to Green’s question by way of Blanchot’s proposal of a past to come, and in that spirit re-engineer, re-purpose and re-imagine his archive.

Mutations of connection and disconnection (Foster) are hoped for: new lines of interpretation, counter-archives within the archive. Gaps and absences will be taken as forms of evidence (Merewether) for this new prospective past (Demos) and the freedoms it may offer.'

Well,  I must be dense, because when I first read this I really couldn't make sense of it. But having been to the talk, and on re-reading, I realise that I am just being dense, because the show does exactly what it says on the tin; takes a personal archive and re-engineers it.

John talked about different ways of looking at a personal archive, and really got me thinking. He discussed eight different ways of looking at an archive:

1. as  monument
2. as obstacle
3. as iceberg
4. as gathering
5. as entourage
6. as promise
7. as utopia
8. as map

I am not going to recreate his lecture, as I could never do it justice, but will pick just one quote that resonated with me.

In describing archive as obstacle, he used this quote from Wright Morris , photographer and writer

'first we make these images to see clearly: then we see clearly only what we have made'

Wright Morris ; photographer and writer

Given that this blog is a personal archive of sorts, 

and if, as John also points out,

'gaps and absences will be taken as forms of evidence'   (Merewether)

then the waters are getting muddy indeed.

about Wright Morris

see here for an essay on his work from Nebraska.

working with the weather

Today I have to get on with taking some photos. I have two plans for the day, neither of which I can currently execute because the weather is wrong; I want to try a collage of some houses in my road, but would like a little bright light. Failing that I really want to try getting some more shots in the rain, but the forecast today is for high pressure. Such is life; I also tried to get a video of the dog speed-eating her breakfast, but the camera was cold from being in the car, and steamed up at the critical moments; will try again , but sadly can't give the dog two breakfasts!

Having been to Andrew Watson's talk on Monday about the Segsbury Camp project, I now understand why he mentioned researching glue when I mentioned my interest in collage; he has been there and done that. I could, of course, create digital collages, and there are even websites that will create a Hockney polaroid effect for free on any image that you choose, but having tried it on a couple of photos decided that there was no creative control whatsoever.  Andrew's work with an archeological site involved using a camera on a pole taking aerial views of the ground, something that has also been done to good effect by Andreas Gefeller in his studies of empty buildings in Japan and Dusseldorf. Both photographers have used extremely methodical techniques to create exact plans of the ground; my plan is to be less mathematical and possibly to experiment with scale on a vertical and horizontal plane.

I was amused to see that Andrew's work was displayed in large plan chests, in a similar way to work that I didn't understand at Elusive. This confirms for me the importance of understanding the intention and background of the work; Andrew's use of chests seemed entirely appropriate and practical, in allowing the viewer to get really close to the images despite the entire work being enormous. If I had been asked to look at them without knowing anything of how or why they were there I would probably have passed them by.

www.arch.ox.ac.uk/segsbury-camp.html

 www.andreasgefeller.com/supervisions/works_since_2005

Elusive

"Elusive" is currently showing at Camberwell Space in Camberwell College of Arts. Alongside this yesterday was a symposium about self publishing with "Self Publish , Be Happy". As a photographic exhibition it is interesting and enjoyable, but also elusive as the title suggests. The works are hung without titles or authors; slightly irritating as one has to use a map to work out which work belongs to who. There is also no explanatory text to describe the authors' intentions; I am sure this was deliberate, but I felt it diminished  the overall experience. The free catalogue contains an essay about three of the works, but the rest are left for the viewer to make what they will of. 

The work above by Verdi Yahooda , entitled "Romillys Tools- an incomplete set" interested me , as I had previously been looking at Susan Hiller's work in archival boxes, which was varied and fun. This work was different; the old box was left closed, and I wasn't immediately sure whether I was permitted to touch it and open the drawers. Having opened the drawer I found prints of old tools printed on plain paper, with strange haloes around them, as if the artist had had difficulty in Photoshop. I have no idea what the haloes were about, and will probably never find out. 

I had been thinking of presenting some items from the home as if they were in a museum archive, for example the contents of a make-up bag, or drawer. Seeing this work made me realise that I don't want to do this in a three dimensional format. Maybe taking photographs of items in archival boxes, or as some form of catalogue would be more appropriate, in the manner of Christian Boltanski, as seen at Chelsea last week.