A Project With Roy
Roy G. Biv. He’s well known. Makes good on his promises. And oftentimes breathtaking.
That is: R.O.Y.G.B.I.V. Better known as Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo and… Violet! The colors of the rainbow.
Tell me, did I have you for just the tiniest of seconds?
I’m starting a project. Bear with me for a moment, and let me ramble a bit before I get into the details, so you can understand where I am coming from with this.
See, I’ve been taking photos for almost 20 years as a hobby. Indeed, I have quite the collection that seems to tell the story of much of my life, it being accessible and literally handy. Emotionally, Photography has always been there for me when I felt lost. And in general… when I felt. It was my outlet for my feelings; for my creativity when I couldn’t muster up the motivation to pick up my pencil and draw. Then, there’s movement… It gets me out into the world and mingling, even in isolating and difficult circumstances. As much as I can, I particularly love going on walks and taking photos. On my adventures, I find all sorts of treasures and observations to capture.
Then, there’s the surprise after that I love. At times, you capture things you didn’t even expect. A little bug hidden on a flower petal. The light creating a magical arc or bokeh moment. A wrinkle. A curl. And so on. That’s when the post processing part of the adventure begins, after the walk, you open the results, one after the other, you observe what has been recorded with light, a lens or two, a sensor, a processor: the surprise, and sometimes disappointment, of what you managed to take a photo of. Then it’s time to play, edit, emphasize, deemphasize, colors and shadow, and see what emerges; gently tease out the potential. The final result, it’s always a something you didn’t expect. You get to have a little magic for a moment.
In an effort to solidify my connection with photography; to come out of the photographic and artistic closet, I’ve created a mini curation project, simply based on the colors of the rainbow that I call: Roy G. Biv. Each week, on my social media channels, I post five photos where the main focus is a color. Below, you will find what I’ve managed to find for red. I’m currently finishing up orange, which was surprisingly more of a challenge. Yellow is looking rather abundant (I take a lot of photos of flowers these days, so with yellow, there is no lack). We’ll see for the rest!
What I love about this curation concept is that I can fit it into my very strange life. There’s still so much going on in my world, staying creative it can be difficult, as I put most of my creativity into my family’s sporadic (but very required) needs. I’m receiving more support to give me more time towards my endeavors, and I am so thankful for that. Still, it’s a challenge, and this small challenge seems to be working its magic and making my relationship with art a little more grounded. A little more real.
I’m also using it as an opportunity to print my photos, something which I have never really done. I hope to get frames to put them in, or collage them in a kind of display. And, as with always with me, there are so many Ands, so let’s just go to the…
Benefits in Bullet Points:
- Convenient: It fits into my life.
- Already done: Most photos have already been taken and edited previously. Little stress. Creative ease = Hooray results.
- Experience in:
- Printing them. Seeing how the colors translate from digital to physical. With the additional benefit of results more concrete and real. I can hold them in my hands and refer to them and even share them.
- The opportunity to frame them or find a special way to display them, gaining some experience there in relation to display.
- Curation experience. Deciding what’s a good image or an interesting context for the audience I’d like to reach.
- Social: Sharing the results in different formats in different spaces, using it to create possible connections with others and network.
- Real World Results and Gauging: It might be small, but I really love that you can create simple projects with results to move the needle forward towards something that expresses who one is or further define one’s goals.
- Multitasking: In the meantime, I can squeeze in other explorative photography and art projects, while these do the work in the areas mentioned above.
See red slideshow below.
