The Photo On The Wall

I have enjoyed making photographs nearly my whole life. I remember my excitement when my uncle loaned me his 35mm rangefinder camera to take on our high school science club’s trip to the Seattle Worlds Fair in 1961.

Since my high school days, I have collected thousands of images. My closet is full of old slides, negatives, and prints. And now my hard drive is full of digital images.

But some of the pictures didn’t stay in a box in the closet. Some of them ended up in albums, some are displayed on the desk or on the cabinet in the hallway, and a few made it to matted frames on the wall.

I have come to the point where I no longer want to take photos that end up in the closet. Occasionally, as the grandchildren age, there is a need to replace the photos on the desk. But, otherwise, I wish every photo could be a new photo on the wall.

What is it that separates the photos in the closet from the photos on the wall? How do you go about taking photos that will end up on the wall rather than wasting photos that will end up in the closet? I’m not sure what the answers are. That’s why I started this blog. As I post my thoughts each week, I hope others will contribute with their own experience. I am hopeful that we can gain insights that will allow us to go out and deliberately take those photos that are wall material.