What do you DO with your photographs?

[Ces1um]

I know some of us are professional photographers or artists that sell their photographs. For all of us "non-professional" or hobbyists, I'm wondering what you do with all the photographs you take?

It struck me the other day after looking at my photos that I got back from the lab that I really have very little purpose for the photos I take. Other than family photos, my macro shots, my landscape photos, etc rarely become more than desktop backgrounds for my computer. I print some of them. I put the odd one in a frame and up on the wall- but those are few and far between.

It seems I prefer the actual process of photography more than my end result. How do others feel?

 

[bsdunek]

I like the process of photography too, but then what? I belong to an art association; we put on four selling shows a year. I make the best prints I can, frame them, and put them in my booth for sale. I have invested in Gridwall panels and hooks, mostly found used, which I use for my booth. My Wife does glass and copper art work and we have our booths together at the shows. I don't sell a lot, but find the shows fun. Talking to people you just met. When somebody drops $75 - $150 bucks on my photos it's very satisfying.

 

[jim10219]

I've only been doing this for about 2 years now, so I'm still working on my style and techniques. Eventually I'd like to start selling my work, but for now, I'm mostly just taking lots of pictures and trying to learn as much as I can from them. I do, however, enter my photos in a couple of competitions throughout the year. It gives me an opportunity to get out there and be apart of the scene, see how I'm progressing and compare my work to other local artist's, and is just plain old fun. But the majority of my work goes unseen. Some of it gets posted to my personal Facebook page, and rarely does something actually get printed.

Eventually I'm going to start selling my work at local galleries and art festivals, but not until I feel that my work is ready for that. So until then, I'm investing my time and money on developing my techniques and style.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I like to print family pictures, show them and have some of them mounted in the photo albums.
I like to be and take some pictures of hometown events. I share them and recently I made photo book totally by myself and gave it to event organizers.

I like to walk around and take some experimental pictures. I print them in the darkroom. I get asked to get some of this prints (as the gift) sometimes.
I like to take street like pictures on travel and I was suggested to make photobook. This is what I'm currently thinking about. Have some photos already printed. Another self-made, not "self" published book. One person in USA asked for pictures from my trip...

I'm not into trying to get "likes" and on display. I'm trying to get closer to the art with my photos, but it is for learning and creativity, not for cash&glory.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Most of them leave the darkroom in the bin. Some of them make it to the walls. Some go to friends, family. Sometimes I exhibit... some are sold. It's nice to get some money back after all the money we put into this hobby.

 

[faberryman]

I enjoy the process of producing prints. Finished prints, depending on size, are either scanned or photographed and posted on my website. The originals are matted and placed in museum boxes. A few are on the walls. I recently had a show, and they were framed for that. I have standardized on sizes so I can re-use the frames as needed. All of this takes more space than I have.

 

[Truzi]

I put them all in albums. Occasionally a picture will be copied and/or enlarged to give to family or friends - but ALL get printed and go into a 4x6 album, even test shots. (At this point the stores/online sites print them for me.)

 

[DWThomas]

I seem to enjoy taking them more than the follow-up processing -- sort of a write-only affair! But I occasionally enter prints in exhibitions and have less occasionally sold one or two. Funny this comes up as I'm currently wrestling with three upcoming opportunities to exhibit and feeling stressed out that recent traveling has my schedule backed up to where I feel like I'm being assaulted by deadlines. At 76 and retired, I really, really thought I was past that stuff!

I do put a great deal of stuff from travels and projects up in my web gallery -- occasionally, Zeus forefend, on Facebook!

Edit: And we do have an assortment of my work on the walls here at home. In fact I added mini-track lights and made a hallway into additional hanging space (it's bit narrow and less than optimum, but it's there). The walls do share space with a number of paintings, some mine, but a half dozen from local artists we know.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I print and hang selected images in my home gallery. I've been documenting my travels in my staircase hall - I've got photos from Belize, Thailand, Cambodia, Spain, Italy, France, here in Washington DC, Argentina, and soon to include Mexico. I've got work by other photographers that I've collected intermingled with my own work.

I do show and sell my work from time to time as well. But I mostly do it for my own pleasure and satisfaction, and I've quit worrying about anyone else's response/reactions to my photography.

 

[tedr1]

The best go on the wall, but they are few, the wall space is limited and there are many images by others superior to my own work that compete for the space.

I have also produced a book, using 8x10 RC paper and comb binding, this turned out well.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

The majority stay at 4x6 or 5x7 and go in albums, a few go on the walls permanently (16x20 or 8x10) and lately I've started using frames to present a collage of photos that I rotate through in order for more to be displayed. However, I've now grown fond of them and don't want to change them. So now I have to put more frames up to keep the rotation going.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

People just don't buy photographs anymore since it is easy to make something acceptable these days. Click, click, print. Everybody thinks they are a master too 'cause they buy the right software. Kinda cracks me up, if it wasn't so sad. So few people even know what a great print looks like.

A few years ago, I dumpstered a few thousand prints, maybe more. I have been thinking more and more about just giving prints away. Otherwise, what is the point? It is like the old expression, if a tree falls in the woods, and there is no one around to hear it, who cares?

 

[Andrew Kleinfeld]

Some on my walls at home, some on the walls in my office, most in storage boxes, sometimes to be discovered and framed years later. For me the point is partly the enjoyment of making the pictures, and mostly that I see more when I'm walking around looking for pictures to take and thinking about what I'll do with the negatives in the darkroom.

 

[darkosaric]

I develop my photos in the darkroom, and then they go back in the original box. In the last 10 years or so I have made couple of thousand prints, from 13x18cm up to 50x60cm. They are ordered by themes and time (for example "people 2011", "animals 2016, "cemeteries 2010", "still life 2006"), and I review and go back to them often.

David Lynch quote I find fitting here: "...go with ideas, and sometimes the past can conjure those ideas and colour them. Even if they’re new ideas, the past colours them".

This is why I find important to review and go back to your past work.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I know some of us are professional photographers or artists that sell their photographs. For all of us "non-professional" or hobbyists, I'm wondering what you do with all the photographs you take?

It struck me the other day after looking at my photos that I got back from the lab that I really have very little purpose for the photos I take. Other than family photos, my macro shots, my landscape photos, etc rarely become more than desktop backgrounds for my computer. I print some of them. I put the odd one in a frame and up on the wall- but those are few and far between.

It seems I prefer the actual process of photography more than my end result. How do others feel?

sometimes the journey is more interesting than the destination; nothing wrong with that!

 

[moose10101]

I put some on the walls at home, display some in juried/small group/solo shows, provide prints for family members who want some "artwork" on their walls, donate framed prints for fundraising auctions to support local arts councils and the local public TV station, and try to learn why I can't get some prints to match what I'd envisioned as the end result.

And use some as background on my computer and phone.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I matt all the final prints I make and rip up any that I feel do not cut the grade, I will end up with a very large , multiple pile of finished matted prints.. I rotate these prints into frames that I own and put them on the wall and enjoy them as well I will do shows and hang my prints to see what others think, I do sell some and I hope by exhibiting more I will become the next big cheese.

 

[blockend]

Mine go into printed books. These are a mix of old negatives (1970s onward), family stuff (the year Jan to Dec, holidays, etc) and themed photographic "projects", which vary in content wildly. I also wet print B&W and have digital colour prints made by a lab. These are for people to look at and handle, as was always the case. The best shots also get mounted and framed.

A photograph that never makes hard copy is entirely virtual, and will probably die with the computer, through redundant technology, or the demise of the photographer.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I think we photographers/printers are a funny breed of people... We make images, print images, hope people will like them, cherish them or buy them, in some cases we sell them, but in most cases we hoard them and long term storage them.

In my case I hope that someday when I am in diapers and not able to make prints again , someone will come along and take my whole archive and preserve it for future viewing. This would be a very weird concept for those who
are not addicted like us to photography. Why would one spend almost all their disposable income on a form of art that in some cases gets thrown away . I hope like hell my work does not meet this sorry end...
If Vivian Maier can look down and see her work being enjoyed by millions I think she would be happy that her day to day strolling's and all her disposable income is actually going to be preserved and cherished.

This concept of leaving behind images is actually what drives me day by day.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Frame and give them away to friends and family and enjoy the smiles and thank you's now. Otherwise, when you die, your wife's next husband will throw them all out.

Other than that, I enjoy scanning pictures, especially travel and vacations and making slide show to be showed on HDTV's with background music, titles, credits, narration, etc. I had about 30 16x20 framed pictures from my MF film, But when we moved, most were thrown out as my wife didn't want them up in the new house except for three of them. So the film taking process and scanning is pretty all that I do with film nowadays. I figure if I post them in an on-line portfolio, her next husband won't be able to throw them all way.

 

[Jacob Weiss]

I think its really healthy to have a selection of images that are gifts/tokens to give to loved ones and friends. The act of photography gets to be so personal for me, that I forget that sometimes other people can take more satisfaction from the result that I can. It's so relieving sometimes to see someone innocently enjoy a beautiful print just because of what it is and how it is executed, not staring into it the perfectionist way I do while in the process of finalizing it.

The majority of my photographs go into hiding, and I am currently in the process of re-approaching my undergrad black and white work in an effort to make another book.

I am still relatively young, so I am trying to make it a habit to remember that photography is often about sharing the experience of emotional response.

 

[TheRook]

Most are organized into albums. Occasionally I print to hang on the wall.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I used to shoot and show slides, now I make prints to put on the walls or to look through.

 

[bsdunek]

I used to shoot and show slides, now I make prints to put on the walls or to look through.

I grew up with slide shows. My Parents and friends would all get together and show the latest slides, along with food and drink. Just make a special evening of it. I miss that, but haven't done slides in quite a few years. Showing them on the TV just isn't the same.

 

[jtk]

I posted this elsewhere on Photrio. Maybe it'll wake some of us up to what has always been one of the most important values in photography:

"My ancestors on my mother's side were photo nuts starting in 19th century. I've inherited all their surviving negs and prints. Over the past decade (on and off) I've scanned almost all (9Gigs), printed 7 sets of a dozen beautifully/selectively and archivally for family members, am in process of better-labeling all those files (names, locations, headline-style titles and a few of my own observations in Word format) for another round of distribution (this will be via thumb drive)..and all is of course in cloud.

My own photography isn't especially important in that context but my own prints are well-stored with notes in fold-lock archival polyester sleeves.

Why would anybody think their work was more important than their family photo memories?

I know a lot of Navajo people: they don't think people fully exist if the can't share their lineage.

Among the tragedies shared by Jews, American black people, American Indians (and others globally of course) are destruction of histories by holocausts they've suffered, and of course the destruction of values brought to all of us by popular culture and transient lives."