About this collection:
What seems an age ago, Kyle Cassady posted a challenge to the Leica enthusiasts' forum, stirring people to post at least one 'picture a week' to show that they actually used their Leicas. Many took up the challenge. The "PAW Project" has at least one mailing list that I know of (here's a
link to the subscription page if you're interested) with a large number of subscribers and participants (here's a
link to the master list of gallery links).
I started doing a PAW project in 2001. For the first four years of my endeavor, I refused to focus the work, content to simply riffle through the photos I made week by week and post the one I liked. It was work anyway, but it was fun and let me use the PAW project as a testbed and learning experience for equipment and techniques. Ultimately, a number of those photos have gone into my portfolio for presentation in other collections.
For 2005, I decided I wanted more structure to the effort. I'd found myself working more of an abstractive style as I meditated on the prospects of what kind of work I wanted to do as an "art photographer" and moved away from one of my principle favorites: candids and street-wise photographs of people. So I took it upon myself to spend a year carrying my camera nearly constantly, visiting cafes and other places where there's a lot of people interacting.
This collection is the result of that effort. It was a lot of work. And difficult sometimes, it gave me back some of the courage needed to overcome my reluctance to intrude upon others' personal space so necessary to the art of photographing people, even people you know.
But it did remain fun. I hope you enjoy the photos.
- Godfrey
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