So far this year I've written 218 posts for my blog, each post containing at least one photo. That's a lot!
On a whim, I tried to choose my favorite images from the year. Came up with one from each month. And was surprised to see that most of them were collages/photomontages.
Why? Because although I'm a good photographer, I feel most creative when I'm making something from nothing, making something that I don't know what it will look like when I'm done. And although I use my own photographs in these montages, I alter them considerably to become part of a greater whole.
My photomontage process feeds my creative soul much more than "straight" photography. My images are unique, don't look like anybody else's, and are always a surprise to me when I'm done.
These six pictures, representing January through June, are all photomontages. There are a couple of "normal" photographs in the next post, but yes, my photomontage work outweighs everything else.
I began the year in January with the top image, "Celestial Spheres," with its planet/moon-like shapes throughout. Nice warm colors.
February's picture is actually a straight photo of an envelope I made, a physical collage created with Japanese book pages, ink-stained paper, and three squares glued on here and there. Nothing more.
Our impending move to Whidbey Island inspired the third picture, made in March, the postcard of a crow looking toward the northwest, and with stamps depicting owls, owls that definitely make themselves known up here.
And then there's the soft blue-colored image called "Writing on the Wall." Off the top of my head, I don't know what I used to make this in April. I would have to go back to the original PSD file and take a look at the layers. I used to be able to say immediately what a particular montage was made of, but I've created so many now that I often don't even remember having made some of them, much less remember what all the components were at the time.
The next one, though, with the two circles, I definitely remember making in May because it was based entirely on a "straight" photo I took from a hotel window looking down at two bicyclists waiting to cross a street. I challenged myself to make a photomontage that captured the stronger elements in the photograph and I was really please with how this one turned out.
And then in June, having been watching the deer on our property, I created a tall, thin Japanese-ish postcard.
It feels good to look back, seeing not only the photos I took but the photomontages I created, reading over some of the posts, seeing the progression through this year, a year that saw me at my father's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery in 12-degree weather, a visit to South Carolina (and 21-degree weather!), the decision to leave the Oregon coast, to settle on Whidbey Island.
Next post I'll continue with this, posting my favorite image from each month.
Take a look at your own work. What are YOUR favorite images, projects, artwork from this past year? It's fun to take a look back.
©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!
