{"id":27744,"date":"2016-03-10T18:02:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T02:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=27744"},"modified":"2016-03-11T21:34:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T05:34:41","slug":"one-week-in-a-one-mile-radius-some-of-the-things-i-have-learned-by-maarten-rots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/10\/one-week-in-a-one-mile-radius-some-of-the-things-i-have-learned-by-maarten-rots\/","title":{"rendered":"One Week In A One Mile Radius: Some of the Things I Have Learned by Maarten Rots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day4-59\"
\nWords and Photos by Maarten Rots<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Maarten<\/strong>: I thrive under restriction; I like it when things are closed off. By (temporarily) taking away\u00c2\u00a0many of the variables of everyday life I create room to focus and get a better understanding of what I do and why I do it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I have set up \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSitting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122: a personal photography project\u00c2\u00a0that consists of a few simple rules:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Photograph for one week within a one-mile radius only<\/li>\n
  2. At the end of each day choose one photograph as the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpick of the day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/li>\n
  3. Present the results in an exhibition right after this week of photographing<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

    After doing the first edition of this project<\/a> in Amsterdam last year, I had the opportunity to do\u00c2\u00a0a second edition in the much smaller city of Tiel, the Netherlands. The center of my one-mile\u00c2\u00a0radius working area was Kunsthuis Kaayk, a beautiful 19th century mansion home to artist\u00c2\u00a0Guusje Kaayk who spent 40+ years of creating there with her late husband and sculptor\u00c2\u00a0Coen Kaayk.<\/p>\n

    Here are some of the things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned during this intense week of photographing, editing\u00c2\u00a0and setting up an exhibition:<\/p>\n

    \"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day2-23\"<\/p>\n

    Return to the same location. Often.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    When working within the same closed off area for a week it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insurmountable that you will\u00c2\u00a0pass by the same place multiple times. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting is that the same place appears\u00c2\u00a0different each time you see it: the position of the sun throws a different shadow onto the\u00c2\u00a0situation, you may be thinking about different things and experience the place differently.Depending on the time of the day there may be many or no people at all. All these things influence the\u00c2\u00a0kind of photograph you can take.<\/p>\n

    If you take the step of returning to the same location on different moments and keep your\u00c2\u00a0eyes open, you will find there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more beauty to the place than you may have initially thought.\u00c2\u00a0Ever considered shooting in the middle of the night?<\/p>\n

    \"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day4-20\"<\/p>\n

    Walk the opposite direction<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Related to the previous: to experience the same place in a different way and discover new\u00c2\u00a0things, it really helps to walk a street or path up and down again. Your perspective changes\u00c2\u00a0everything about the situation and you can make connections that you did not see when you\u00c2\u00a0first came from one direction. Walk slow to get a good look and stop to take the camera to\u00c2\u00a0your eye and find a good and interesting frame. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay to put the camera down without\u00c2\u00a0pressing the shutter release button; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better not to take a shot when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not good enough\u00c2\u00a0than to come home with a whole cluster of mediocre shots that will not make it through your\u00c2\u00a0final selection.<\/p>\n

    \"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day4-50\"<\/p>\n

    Lay down to get your shot<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Changing your perspective is a very effective way to make what first seemed uninteresting\u00c2\u00a0appear fresh and exciting. As a photographer you can make others see their surroundings in\u00c2\u00a0a refreshing way. Most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it a habit to lay down on the ground going about\u00c2\u00a0their normal daily business. Make it yours and surprise yourself and others. You may get\u00c2\u00a0some strange looks and the occasional remark but those are only temporary. If you learn to\u00c2\u00a0live with those side-effects, you will get shots you would have never taken while standing up.<\/p>\n

    \"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day1-20\"<\/p>\n

    Get closer<\/strong><\/p>\n

    You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve probably heard or read it before: Robert Capa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s famous quote \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If your photographs\u00c2\u00a0aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

    To me a photo becomes more and more interesting when its subject is less obvious.\u00c2\u00a0Ambiguity opens up how I experience the image, I am allowed to fill in what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missing. By\u00c2\u00a0getting closer to your subject you reveal more of its details, less of the broader image and\u00c2\u00a0leave it up to the viewer to construct the story. Trigger your own and other people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imagination by focusing on details and leaving the obvious out. Give people a chance to\u00c2\u00a0apply their own interpretation to your photograph.<\/p>\n

    \"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day7-16\"<\/p>\n

    Connect the seemingly unconnected<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A story gets interesting when two or more elements that did not yet have a relationship are\u00c2\u00a0introduced in one and the same scene and start to interact. The viewer immediately starts to\u00c2\u00a0search for connections and a storyline \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help doing, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in our nature\u00c2\u00a0to want to make sense of everything. Use this mechanism to make you photographs little\u00c2\u00a0stories in their own right.<\/p>\n

    Look back at what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to say for letting your work \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmarinate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a>, but just as much can be said to advocate\u00c2\u00a0looking back at what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still in the process. Every day during this\u00c2\u00a0project I printed all my shots on a postcard size and mixed them all up. Interesting\u00c2\u00a0combinations happen coincidentally and if you start playing around with all these little prints\u00c2\u00a0you will start to find connections between your photos. When you become aware of patterns\u00c2\u00a0in your shots you can deliberately start to look for these while taking photos \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or decide to\u00c2\u00a0start not shooting those kinds of photos anymore depending on your opinion. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good to be\u00c2\u00a0aware of your less conscious decisions, it makes you a more focused photographer.<\/p>\n

    That all said, in the end it comes down to going out and shoot; no matter the circumstances\u00c2\u00a0there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always an interesting situation to be captured!<\/p>\n

    \"maarten-rots-siting-kunsthuis-kaayk-day5-18\"<\/p>\n

    About Maarten<\/h2>\n

    \"March&Rock-#4-MockUp-Front\"<\/p>\n

    Maarten Rots<\/a> is an artist working with photography based in Amsterdam. His\u00c2\u00a0photography often leans towards abstraction with a hint of surrealism, found in\u00c2\u00a0everyday situations. He loves printed photography and one of the ways he\u00c2\u00a0shares his work is through his self-published quarterly photography magazine\u00c2\u00a0March & Rock<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Follow Maarten on Instagram<\/strong>: @maartenrots<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Words and Photos by Maarten Rots. Maarten: I thrive under restriction; I like it when things are closed off. By (temporarily) taking away\u00c2\u00a0many of the variables of everyday life I create room to focus \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[372],"tags":[1744],"class_list":["post-27744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-photographers","tag-maarten-rots"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}