Help! I've f*cked up my film!
Curated vs Outtakes - Finding the joy in making mistakes.
Hi friends!
Thank you for sticking around during my short break, and I’d like to welcome the 45!!! new subscribers who have jumped on board since my Intermission post. I’m blown away by how many people have decided to tune into the chaos that is ‘Josie On Film’ - at most I figured maybe 5 or 10 people would be interested, but wow, suddenly there’s a lot more of you and it is so lovely to know there’s even a crumb of interest in my ramblings!
I hope you have been well, I myself have been busy with endless medical appointments for my injury recovery and I still can’t really pick up a camera the way that I want to. I did however take a little trip into the City (I’m about 1.5hrs from Sydney) and snapped just a couple of sneaky film shots, which I hope to develop later next week.
These newsletters tend to be quite rambly, photo heavy, (as you can already see by the looooong intro photo, oops!) and have the vibe of catching up with that one friend over coffee who’s just very passionately going on about something cool they did. So if that’s your kind of jam, you’re in the right place!
Grab something to drink, settle in, and let’s get into it!
Let’s get the boring technical shit out of the way first… Curation.
It’s hard to separate yourself from your art at times, but it’s a necessity.
Developing a critical eye and being able to step back from your work (and your own bullshit at times) is going to be the most important thing you do.
Curation is vital. You can’t create a strong portfolio or develop an ability to know what is ‘good’ without it. It’s absolutely essential if you’re working with clients and seeking paid professional work, but can be applied to even personal collections too if you plan to dabble in entering contests or exhibitions. It’s a skill that takes trial and error to get right and over time you’ll get a keen eye for the details that most won’t notice (unless they’re a fellow photographer) but will still matter immensely.
‘Okay, but what the heck is Curation for photography anyway?’ You may be wondering - Curation is basically a fancy way of saying you’re working really bloody hard at making a selection of the best images that represent you and your work for a collection and/or delivery - whether it be for a paying client, a commercial brand, or even just a friend you met up with to play around with new techniques to add to your portfolio.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and even easier to feel like you absolutely have to give someone every last photo that you took too. But I’m here to tell you (and hopefully show you) why it’s so important to develop a critical eye, and pick the photos that best represent you as an artist, regardless of the context or subject of the photo.
Ultimately you’ll have to eventually learn how to go from this:
To something like this:
Heck, I’d do a second pass and cut that selection down again to the best 3 photos if I’m being totally honest.
[A little side note - If you’re giving out 100’s of photos to every single client or collaborator (especially free or ‘TFP’ time for prints where everyone on the team is exchanging services and has equal skill, mostly in the pursuit of portfolio work) I urge you to stop and ask yourself if they ALL truly represent you best. A selection of 10 of your best and most beautifully executed photos will always outdo the other 90 extra ‘okay’ photos you included but didn’t really need to…
If you’re interested in the how’s and why’s and a more detailed “workshop” on how to curate and select photos click the ‘leave a comment’ button below to let me know and I’ll make a newsletter about it! ]
There’s something to say about picking the right Aesthetics too.
One part of the 35mm Film Community that I absolutely adore is