Where to go from here?

In a few days, I will be returning to Kiev to continue working on my final project… And obviously over the last few days I had a bit of time on my hands to reflect on my project and the progress I have made so far… More specifically I also thought about where I need to go – foremost to be happy with the results myself…Quite naturally, this is also where self-doubt creeps in: I have a few ideas on what I need to work on, what I will need to explore and shoot to make the project well-rounded…

But will I be able to pull it off? Will I encounter situations, people, scenes, etc. that will enable me to take the pictures I have set my mind to? After all, chance is a pertinent factor in what essentially constitutes a ‘street photography’ project… Should I go with Robert Frank who said about his project(s) that ‘…[my project] will shape itself as it proceeds, and is essentially elastic…’ or do I need to be more focused and pre-planned in seeking out the images I would like to find and shoot?

And there is the issue of getting ‘psyched’ up for a (new or on-going) project, a subject David Alan Harvey has so eloquently written about in a recent blog entry. As he writes in his blog: ‘…past accomplishments are but a background blur....new commission, new assignment.....it is always "a mountain to climb" to even get to this state of "nothingness"...”.

Having printed some of the images that I shot on the occasion of my last visit, I also began to ponder about the content/form dichotomy. Winogrand said that he preferred ‘…to work in that area where content almost overwhelms form…’, i.e. where there is so much going on in a frame that form becomes secondary. However, there is also the virtually opposite (and possibly more arty?) end where artists in the pursuit to advance formally almost do away with content.

I am quite mindful that I am walking a thin line between content and form when shooting these images in the underpasses. At which stage would form overwhelm content and render these images meaningless? I am trying to make interesting images without losing their meaning… after all I am still committed to a documentary project.

So still quite a few things to think through…