One of the things duckrabbit would like to think we’re good at is editing.  Mind you essentially we’re crowd pleasers.  As a BBC Radio producer duckrabbit learned that you could make three dimensional, intellectually stimulating programmes that were also very popular. You just had to work bloody hard at it.

To me a great photo says to you … keep looking, keep looking, keep looking … BANG … whacks you over the head with some thought, some connection, makes you a part of the story. Its not always immediate, but its long lasting. Oh yeah, and its very,very subjective.

Yesterday I found myself looking at FOTO8′s latest slideshow, ‘Living in the Shadow of Volcan de Fuego’ by Sophie Gerrard. I have to say after the  first couple of photos I nearly gave up.  But I persisted and I think somewhere amongst the noise is a personal and poignant story. I say noise because I think this set could desperately do with an edit.

I guess you could argue it depends on who you want to reach.  Does audience really matter?  Well there are plenty of arts council funded artists who don’t think so.  Personally I think the majority of them are both intellectually and artistically bankrupt, but good arse lickers and even better form fillers. Whatever ….

All that is to say, do yourself a favor. Watch the slideshow and then tell me if you were the editor how many photos you would feature?  If it was my choice, there would pick 13 to tell the story (I mean how many battered houses do you need?) but what do you think?

TOM WHITE AGREES

Agreed, a few real gems amongst a set that could benefit from some pruning! Sometimes it’s best to do a tight edit; take a story, not matter how many pictures long, limit yourself to 8-12 pictures and you’ll soon see which ones are the stunners. Of course, if you have think you have 70+ great pictures from a story, then you have a book. Or at least an exhibit. You also probably have several hundred that didn’t make the cut….

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1. Swansea BA Photojournalism degree show – slideshow on Foto8
2. American Detail – FOTO8 audio slideshow
3. The Cidermen – FOTO8 audio slideshow

This is how they introduce themselves

Idea

Charles Harbutt said, “A writer can write in a void (many do). Beethoven was deaf. Sculptors can sculpt and painters paint miles and years from the sources of their vision. But camera lenses require both light and some real thing external to materials and maker. If a photographer, with the best film and camera, stepped into a seamless sphere and there was no light, he could produce one black picture.”

We don’t make black pictures but we might as well if there is no place to showcase it.

We are driven at Blindboys.org to turn on the lights and build a space to see  Asian Photography in a new light.

duckrabbit thinks there’s some great stuff on Blind Boys and recommends you spend some time on the site.

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Related posts:

1. BBC Audio slideshow: Photography by blind people
2. Hiroshima..the lost photographs.
3. One picture, two points of view