Looking at Photographs

A Project of 6

A Special Interest Group

Introduction

In creating this special interest group our goal is to have a forum for club members to use photography in a way that is not supported by our monthly competition format.  The activities of the special interest group are to take place outside of and in addition to the club’s current activities.

As photography is much more than single, mutually exclusive photos, this is a desire by club members to form a group where photography is used to communicate a story or theme in a well defined series of photos constituting a project.  This approach has been well defined by Brooks Jensen[1], a photographer and publisher, in a series called “Seeing in Sixes”.  His definition is used here as the basis for this special interest group.

Definition[2]

“A Seeing in Sixes” project is a compact expression of a single nature, possibly a story, definitely a theme, held together stylistically, and making a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts: tight, distilled to the essentials, impactful, deeper than what is possible with a single image.”

“We looked for several things, not necessarily in this order: originality; consistency of style; engaging content that grabbed our attention; projects about life rather than about photography; images that complemented and supplemented one another instead of becoming repetitious; projects that engaged our imagination; projects that included compelling text that expands the viewing experience; projects that reflect a photographer’s point of view; excellence of craft both photographic and with text; projects that create their own small world within the limitation of six images only.”

“Small bodies of work tend to fall into a number of styles or categories.  The most common are:

Exploring a common subject

Exploring an interesting place

Exploring an interesting idea or concept

Personal diary, exposition

Narrative story, often over time

Extended portrait”

Operational Guidelines

The special interest group is open to all club members.  You may participate by submitting projects and by just attending the meetings to view and critique the submissions.  

The group is managed by 3 members acting as the group leadership.   This leadership will keep track of the active projects and be the gateway for submission of projects for review in group meetings. 

Meetings are held on a regular basis dependent on the submission of projects.  The goal is to have 3-6 projects presented at a meeting, followed by discussion of the projects and then possibly a general discussion related to active projects group members are working on. 

Projects are to reflect current work or the continuation of a long-term project.

Meetings are held via Zoom every 4th Monday of the month.  To get on the calendar the project must have first been reviewed by the Leadership Team; the only criteria is that the project be consistent with the Definition above. 

Submission Format:

Photos are to be combined into a single PDF file.  Photos are to be in the desired order for presentation.  Common tools for generating a PDF are Acrobat, Lightroom, Photoshop, PowerPoint and even MS Word. Though the easiest for most members is the use of Lightroom.  Click on the link below for step-by-step instructions for doing this within Lightroom.

Creating a PDF

Send your PDF to the Moderators via the club email; simply check the box for the Moderators of the Project of SIX.

Recommended Readings

To further understand and to stimulate people's interest, we suggest the following short readings:

Lessons from Seeing in SIXES

Revelation Discovery Reinterpretation

Ten Strategies for Better Photographs

Beyond Geometry

Leadership Team

Initially this group will be lead by it's founders:
Kent Bossange
Larry Shapiro