Welcome to Negative Space
Looking from the background, forward.
First thing’s first, thank you.
If you’re reading this, thank you. I’m humbled and grateful at the support I’ve received in just starting this creative endeavor and I’m excited to see where it goes and that you’ll be here along the way.
Why Negative Space?
Negative space can be defined as the empty or unoccupied space around or between objects/forms in a composition, which helps define the boundaries and relationships of the objects/forms.
I settled on the name Negative Space, not only because its a common photographic term, but also because this monthly email will act as a space to discuss the why/creative process of my photography. I believe that the why of any artist acts as the negative space to their subject; their piece of art.
The creative process “helps define the boundaries and relationships” of the artist to the artwork. It’s something that is only noticed when brought to your attention, or you’re intentionally looking at it. Negative space can be used to serve and highlight the subject of a photo, and I think that’s exactly what the creative process does for artists and their artwork. Sometimes the beauty of a piece of art or photograph lies in the context in which it was made.
Some photos shared here might not be the most visually appealing ones, but I’m hoping that when the context is shared, you’ll have times when you glance up from your computer screen or phone in shared moments of humanity.
A Thinking Community
Negative Space is meant to create a culture of thinking. Not only for me, but I hope for you as well. There is value in taking time to consider the current state of the art world and I believe it’s a worthy pursuit of any artist or lover of art to consider.
In the age of social media, web 3, digital art, and AI, it can be easy for me to quickly lean one way or the other on these certain topics. Not only that, I find myself posting on Instagram just for the sake of posting without thinking of why I’m posting that certain photo. There can be certain pressures of pushing out work for the public to see, or maybe the sense of feeling “left behind” if you’re not participating in a new trend.
I’ll be writing about these things from time to time, and I hope it will start a conversation or keep the conversation going.
What to Expect
Logistics to this space are pretty simple. There will be at least two posts per month for now. The first post being the actual newsletter diving into the why and the context of the photo, that image will be that month’s darkroom print. The second post following will be “Print Notes” where I talk about creating the actual print in the darkroom. The print will be sent out to those of you who have subscribed to receive one soon after the first post is sent out.
This is a way for me to get better at the practice of printing and making photos while at the same time making photos accessible to you each month. The prints will either be 4x6 or 5x7 in size. There will be some months where if I find a photo that would be served by a larger print, then there is a possibility that I’ll send out an 8x10 print to those of you subscribed to receive one.
Finally, I’ll also be sharing about upcoming projects, commissions, or possible photo project ideas here first before posting about them. This is one way for me to say “thank you” to each of you for subscribing and showing genuine interest in my work.
The Start
As this is the first post and the start of this project, it would be fitting for the first print to be a photo from when I first started photography, and even from one of the first rolls I developed myself.
This photo was taken in Princeton Kentucky in the summer of 2018. I’ve driven past this house countless times, going back and forth from Maddi’s (my wife) house whenever we were dating.
We were driving back from Franklin TN shortly after getting married and I pulled off to take this photo because I never had before. As soon as I stepped out of the cool air conditioned car I was hit with the Kentucky summer heat and the sound of cicadas. Newly wed, summer time, carefree, home. These things never end for this photo, and neither do the cicadas.
For the sake of a long post, I don’t want to dig too much into this photo other than it’s a photo that makes me feel warm. It reminds me of a sweet time in my life, and I think we all have those photos that remind us of times that left us feeling warm.
Until Next Month
Thank you so much for reading. If you have any comments feel free to share, would love to hear from you. I’ll be mailing out the prints this week on a 4x6 post card to those of you subscribed to receive one. You can also upgrade your subscription anytime to receive a monthly darkroom print as well.
I can’t wait to see where this goes and thankful for each of you tagging along.
Cheers,
Andrew