January
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September
October
Noticing Project 
“The notion of the project is to look intently and observe the small or ephemeral moments around us.”
Is the project about the “small or ephemeral moments” or is it about “small, ephemeral moments”?
For me, collectively, the images thus far to have a quiet and solitary feeling. Although there is a lot of white (making the image with so many greens leap out), there is almost a melancholy stillness emerging from the closeness. Maybe it is only due to winter. Perhaps the color palette will change in accord with the seasons. I am already imagining the 250 pairs of photos for the year on a gallery wall as a single, color mosaic. A life of its own.
I find myself wondering about the issue of scale in this project. Is small bigger than tiny but not as big as large? Is ephemeral a fleeting expression that is gone before you can push the shutter or the full moon that passes by just once a month?
I’m just thinking out loud, the questions are rhetorical. I’m not generally a blogger and I am probably a poor judge of what kinds of feedback people expect.
Thanks for the archive, I was trying to reconstruct this in my head until I figured out (uh, noticed) it was here.
Walter,
Thank you for your thoughts about our project. We want to intentionally notice the details around us and also recognize the moments that are fleeting {whatever time that spans}. So those two ideas may not or may be exclusive of one another.
We consider it a compliment that you think of these images filling a gallery. Thank you.
Is there any way to get copies of these photos for framing? I love them!
love this concept
Just a few random comments I guess, as the equinox approaches and the project nears the 25% mark.
There is ambiguity, which I find an ironic outcome of noticing. A pattern I find emerging in the images thus far is that they appear as pictures that would fit inside other pictures. In other words, many of them give the viewer the feeling of peering through a crack in the door into the next room; much of what is there (and the viewer “knows” is there) is only implied off the edge (and/or sometimes behind the layer of the primary focal plane). Even the picture of a large bridge span is not strictly about the bridge, since it falls off the edge too. I wonder about the pathway to these final views, since I often crop my own original images to create a similar effect. For me, the ‘noticing’ happens in two stages, at the time the photograph is made, and then again a second time, when I later look into the image and see something that is more interesting or important to me. I routinely ask myself why I can’t be more efficient at recognizing the composition I want when I actually take the shot so I can eliminate step 2. Anyway, this approach is the antithesis of those children’s books “Where’s Waldo?” There, the viewer is given both the complexity of a broad view and the responsibility of noticing the details on their own. There is a more controlling influence here. I am finding it interesting to be on the other side of the camera for a change, it helps me to reflect on what I might be expecting from people that look at my photographs.
Anonymity is another theme for me. The collection of images isn’t anchored anywhere by anyone’s identity. There are some pictures of people here, but they are mostly hands and feet, so the other connected parts are again only implied somewhere out of sight. There are a few examples of faces too, but they are not from people. I think it is interesting that photographing people as their component parts can have such a different impact on our own reaction to what we see. A picture of the top edge of a person is typically a portrait and it elicits very different responses than a picture of their other edges (those hands and feet, for example). We are preconditioned to notice faces, especially in the medium of pictures, so I am noticing their absence! I think it is also interesting that the picture of the cat posted at the end of January combines elements of anonymity with ambiguity, even with a face involved. It’s part of a face (and an incidental floating torso), but I can’t tell if it is driven by a sense of smell or just curiosity. I like this image very much.
I admit that I’m still uncertain how fleeting moments that are allowed to span any length of time inform the project. But I think too much!
And alas, the botanist in me recognized the Lexan (that waffered clear plastic sheathing) in a couple of the greenhouse images.
happy spring.
dude! think less – photograph more.
this is a wonderful project! Congrats. Can’t wait to see more :)
Have a nothing wonderful week
Sory ignore my first comment. this is a wonderful project! Congrats. Can’t wait to see more :)
Have a noticing wonderful week!
Marvellous work. Such steadfastness and liveliness.
What a gorgeous collection of images. You should be proud!