Almost art – introducing my daily photo blog

I have another blog. Actually I have several other blogs and websites, but I mean: I have another active blog besides this one. It’s called GBG365 which is short for Gothenburg (or Göteborg) 365 days. [No more – see my note at the foot of this.]

Daily photos

In September 2012 I started publishing a daily photograph from Gothenburg, mostly as a challenge to myself. I thought I might manage a few weeks. Rather to my surprise I’m now well into my second year. In celebration of which I’ve been looking through the images with a view to making a photo book: a coffee-table book of photos – almost art – from Gothenburg. Perhaps I might be able to sell it as a Christmas book.

To be sure, with a camera and an Instagram app in every mobile phone, everyone’s a photographer now and the market for photo books may be disappearingly small. However, like GBG365, I’m thinking of it more as a personal challenge. Besides, my Mum would like a copy!

(Mum is disparaging. “I don’t think photography is Art,” she says. But she still wants a copy of my photo book.)

Photographic art

Is photography art? Really, I’m not sure.

There’s art in framing a picture in the camera and art in an appreciation of how light falls, how it illuminates and conceals. If you are, say, Cindy Sherman, there’s certainly art in composing your pictures and telling your stories – but I am not Cindy Sherman, nor was meant to be. (Though I admire her work.)

Once I used to think the art of photography was in the developing process (which I was never very good at) and there is unquestionably art in photoshoppery, but I eschew that for the most part.

Almost art

My GBG365 photos are mostly as they came from the camera. I do pass them through Photoshop, but only to correct tone and contrast – occasionally colour – and to add my copyright. (Sometimes I make a small crop too.) At the same time, when I look at them afterwards, some of them strike me as resembling works of art. Hence the working photo book’s working title: Almost Art.

I may be flattering myself, but here, anyway, are a few of my favourite efforts. They are linked to their posts on GBG365 because it has better viewing software. [See below.] The full-size web images are 72dpi and 960px by 720px. Now 1920px by 1440px. (Compromising the images for Internet publication is something else I do in Photoshop). The original images are print-quality and 56cm by 42cm (A2 size).

Anyway, I hope you like these pictures. Tell me what you think – is a photo book an unrealistic dream?

[GBG365 is long dormant. Most of these photos can be seen larger and in better quality simply by clicking on them. Alternatively, some have appeared as Photos of the Week and the links will take you to those posts. Or you could visit my Images category. 19 Feb 2019]

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This article was written for the #Blogg52 challenge.