Looking back, I’m like, whoa…
August 16, 2007, 2:56 PM
As I restore all these photo sets, it struck me – my photography has evolved over the course of seven years of doing photo sets. The older stuff definitely looks like the work of a younger, less experienced man. Let’s just say that half the stuff that made it onto the Web site for some of those older sets (The Schumin Web Salutes America comes to mind) would never have made the cut today. Plus the way I covered some of it back then would never have happened today.
A good comparison is with the treatment of the US Capitol. Back in 2001, I covered the Capitol as part of “The Schumin Web Salutes America”. The writing was so-so at best, and it came off as a walk-around in a hurry (which it was). The focus was on the building, with tourists in place. Then compare it to the Capitol’s most recent appearance, as part of the J27 set. There, the Capitol’s appearance was incidental, but we told more of a story. In fact, the writing is often king in Life and Times sets. But Photography also tells a “story” as well, and more emphasis is placed on telling the “story” now than before.
Of course, back then, what is now Photography (then “Photo Essays”) was a bit more general-purpose than it is now. More “life” stuff went into it back then. There was no “Life and Times” section, and no Journal. Both of those didn’t start until 2003. Since then, I’ve switched some stuff around, turning some Photography stuff into College Life stuff, and turning some of it into Life and Times. The original photography set, the Wal-Mart set, is now Life and Times, if that tells you anything.
Meanwhile, I just wish I was finished restoring stuff, since the Borf photo set is currently on hold pending completion of the restoration. And for those interested, the current schedule is to finish Photography hopefully this weekend, and then move onto Life and Times next week. The Photo Feature will be reinstated after that, and then I’ll move on to College Life, which should be a relatively fast restore job, since it’s basically more photo sets. Then Today’s Special and Transit will be bigger jobs, since they’re getting reworked with the outage.
Web site: The Schumin Web - what else?
Song: Safri Duo's Leave Me Alone song
Quote: So yeah, there you are...
Categories: Photography, Schumin Web meta