Methodology
As I previously mentioned in my last blogpost, I sort of backed into the BLACK CACTI project based on how I had photographed the cacti, and other common desert plants, for an editorial project I worked on a number of years ago. Based upon the initial twenty photos taken for that project, the general design system for the whole series existed from day one. As I have both put up the BLACK CACTI page on my website, and posted a daily cactus on Instagram/Facebook for a few weeks recently, I have actually started to wonder how I might redesign this project if I were to actually begin working on it in 2018?
Before we might even want to imagine what a reformulation of the project might look like, let's first look at the Instagram posting cluster above for similarities and divergencies amongst these images. In the grid above the obvious similarities include tonality, moderate/high contrast, low point of view, cropping into plant, high depth and those dark dark gray skies. As far as divergencies, these would include lens type, severity of POV, darkness of sky, size relationship of cactus to sky, variation in cropping into cactus arms, cactus position within frame. While the divergencies definitely exist here, the group seems to hold together pretty affectively. However, I backed into the creative decisions for the Black Cacti by accident, but other subgroups in the project have been far more consciously designed. So a question arises here concerning how one decides upon an appropriate visual system for a typology?
In these types of projects where visual impact is commonly downplayed, for the sake of clarification, relatively narrow design systems may be required at times, that may not classically be considered beautiful. The defining aspect of a design system can vary markedly depending on what is being studied. Yes "studied"; this is the area of photography that comes closest to the methodologies normally associated with physical science and social scientific research. However, this is art and not science, so a number of aesthetic decisions still need to made, just not for a single image, but across the complete cluster of images. These decisions pivot around what is actually being studied. If we are looking at tonal variation depending on time of day, like the wall corner above, we gain little or nothing visually from changing composition from image to image. I generally think of this type of approach, as relatively narrow, with a strong concern for immediate comparison.
On the other hand, the Black Cacti function in a far more flexible universe, where I am not trying to tease out a single comparison. My goal here is to actually marvel at how no two Saquaros look the same. This allows for a more fluid system where composition and cropping can vary, as long as the graphics stay simple and consistent, the skies are dark gray, and the early morning/late day side lighting accentuates how three dimensional each cactus arm is. However, this should in no way be considered, a lack of methodology.
Typologies always have a methodology, sometimes obvious, other times more hidden. Without a methodology, a typology becomes mere fictionalized data. Specific to the Black Cacti, I did not just go to Arizona and photograph the hundred most interesting cacti I could find. Firstly, I needed to decide on the lighting quality that worked best. Once I decided on that, the next question that arose concerned sky tonality. Yes, there are actually gray cacti, and white cacti clusters also, but the black cacti really had the visual tension, I so love in the landscapes of Ansel Adams and Clyde Butcher. So it was deep red filter all the way!
Finally, the last issue to address was how to sample the cacti. I finally decided, rather than deciding what cacti I wanted to shoot, to instead use the scientific technique of walking a sampling transect. In this way, any saguaro within twenty five feet of the path I was walking was photographed. This allowed for walking a generic, random five mile path across the desert recording what was there, independent of my visual reaction to any given cactus.
Neither the aesthetics or the science goes away in these types of situations. The creative concerns are always there, but they are tethered to a theme one photograph cannot easily describe. To this end, I want to close with a short description of the beginnings of a newer transect project I am working on using the photo that opens this blogpost. While the black cacti are essentially a census, the goals in the transects are spatial. Essentially a landscape is being subdivided into smaller units, so we can explore variation in the plant communities that comprise the desert, most of us drive through at 75 mph on the way to Las Vegas or Phoenix.
I actually selected this photo because as a single landscape I am very happy with it, but it will never see the light of day in a transect. I am at the beginnings of figuring out how I think this area can most affectively be described, and have been seriously struggling with how much sky I can get away with, and where this transect will begin. The good news is this "praying" saguaro is where the transect will begin. The bad news aesthetically is that there will be far less sky in the opening photo than the photo above.
