A place for things that are worth writing down, even when they do not quite add up to an article.
PHOTOGRAPHY · NOTE 03
The usefulness of a contact sheet
A single photograph asks to be judged on its own. A contact sheet shows the less tidy part: the step to the left, the missed expression, the frame taken a moment too late.
Seeing the whole sequence makes choosing easier. It also makes it harder to pretend that the good frame was inevitable.
Read the rest
Small prints are enough. At that size the distracting details fall away and the shape of the picture becomes clearer. Two frames that looked different on a screen can turn out to do exactly the same job.
The sheet does not need careful presentation. A date, a short description and a circle around a few frames will do. It is a working object, not a finished piece.
READING · NOTE 02
A pencil, rather than a bookmark
There is something useful about leaving a short note beside a passage. A bookmark remembers the page; a few words remember why the page mattered.
The note may turn out to be obvious when the book is opened again. That is all right. It belongs to the first reading.
EVERYDAY · NOTE 01
Before putting something away
Boxes become difficult when they contain several unfinished decisions. A label helps, but it cannot decide which of the things inside still need attention.
Keep the thing and the reason for keeping it close together.
A name on the back of a photograph, a date on an envelope, a sentence in a folder: small bits of context tend to be more useful than elaborate systems.