I walk
not passing negligently the things I love
but stopping to know them.
Admiring the imperfect, the impermanent and incomplete
Seeing beauty in things modest and humble.
Walking in fellowship with nature.
After Robert Henri
Images are from an in-process project titled Little Walks. I walk daily along the American River with my dog and my cell phone.
I am a resident of the present and tourist of the past.
I lost my mother in a car accident when I was 10 years old, as a result there are few family photographs of me or the places I have been from that age on. Now, I recognize the importance of what it means to me to make images of the place I live. If I don’t take the time to make these images, who else will? When looking at photographs of the past I am reminded that I am the sum of my own experiences.
This work is about melancholy, loss and working through that to build a meaningful connection with the place I live.
One reason I hadn’t photographed any of the places I have lived with any real rigor is that I never felt quite at home. Part of this project is to push past that and recognize that “feeling at home” is just a state of mind. I am embracing the aesthetic of the environment I live in and how it influences me.
J. William Kraintz II
Resident-Tourist
One thing I have learned is that the early photo assignments I had during introductory photo courses have become indispensable tools to me as a photographer. A common exercise that instructors give photo students that are just starting out and looking for ideas about what to photograph is to take a picture of something during different times of the day.
The subject matter isn’t what is most important, the exercise is meant to encourage you to experiment with photographing something more than once and to learn how different lighting situations affect the scene.
The rapidity at which an image can be made with a camera can also create a false sense of what it takes to make an image, what you don’t see is curating, criticizing, and evaluating over time to end up with a series of photographs that communicate clearly and are aesthetically pleasing.
The photos below are from my current project Resident-Tourist. This project consists of making images as artifacts and producing postcards to send out to supporters of the project. Only one of these will make it into the final portfolio.
In some cases I am not happy with the first exposure that I take of a scene, so logically my next step is to return and photograph it again and again at different times of day. This can be tricky especially if it is in an area where you may not be able to get the exact field of view, for me it was the fact that the parking lot full of cars made it difficult to keep the framing the same, in the end I think that it didn’t matter anyway and being forced to try different compositions helped me refine what I was aiming for aesthetically.
So even though you may not be doing a photo assignment that you are enthusiastic about remember that it is a tool that you can use in the future like I am doing here.
Try it for yourself!
This exercise is easier with an object on a table next to a window. But this is meant to be done any way you like.
As an extra take all of the images to your friends and ask them what they think is their favorite then reveal what your favorite image is. This can lead to a great conversation and help you understand how everybody has a different and unique idea of what is a successful photograph.
Thank you for visiting.
J. William Kraintz II
The photos below are organized in the order that they were made over the course of a week.
Today in my Senior Portfolio class we did what our teacher Nigel Poor called a Quick snap challenge. The rules for this exercise were simple; we had to go for a walk and collect things we found interesting, bring them back to our studio space and photograph them. Our time limit was ninety minutes, and then we shared one photo with the class for discussion. I thought this was an incredibly fun exercise, I got so carried away with re-arranging the objects that I almost didn’t get it done in time to share.
Exercises like this are helpful because I think that when you let loose and have fun with something like this you open yourself up to new creative possibilities.
I used this as a way to further practice some ideas I have had recently about how I document things I find interesting. Below are the results from what I made and a few from my classmates. Enjoy!
J. William Kraintz II
Try it yourself!!
02 January 2021
31 December 2020
Photographs from a fishing trip to Lake Berryessa 12/28/2020. We didn’t catch any fish.
In response to a discussion about creative space and how we find it for ourselves.
I clean it
I destroy it
I clean it
I destroy it again
Kraintz Photography 