after talking to and observing the work of two of my instructors, it appeared to me that they happen to have an interest in very scientific, documentary style photographs. the type of photographs i'm referring to are the type of photographs that appear with blank background with something centered in the middle of the composition. to me these photographs seem as if they could be some type of scientific slides, meant to document something in particular. because of this, one single print of these types of photographs can't really hold my attention. once i look at one of these prints, i observe and study whatever the photograph is documenting, then move on, and feel no need to go back and reinvestigate these prints. this is how i view these prints when they are giving to me in a book, on a computer screen, or just one by. when these images are displayed to me in gallery or in anyone room, all together as one body of work, i view them in a different way, and their strength is increased greatly.
a good example of this type of work and change in strength from single images to a group, is the work of narelle autio documenting australian coastal life. when first viewing her images one by one my interest and curiosity is not held and i move from one to the other...
however when i saw how she laid out her work in galleries i became interested in her images and in the difference that size and layout of prints can make...
with all the spacing, arrangement, and size differences between the images all of her work takes on new life and effects the viewer in a different way, than simply displaying single framed images, all of the same size, in a line on the wall. then after becoming interested in her work, due to her presentation, i also became interested in her idea of documenting a place by signaling out and shooting one item at a time, as opposed to shooting large -scape scenes or people. this goes to show how it is important to capture your audience visually, and then keep them there with an idea.
