alan frost photography

Moving along another path raises questions… or does it?

By alan frost on April 18, 2019

If you have read the last couple of entries on this blog you will know that I have started to ‘play’ with ICM photography. The technique is hardly new but it is new to me. However it is such a change from my usual style it has raised some interesting questions for me to consider.

Is this approach too much of a departure for me – is it too radical? How does it imapact on what I have done in the past? Does it complement or is there a conflict? I like the impressionist nature of the images I am making but is it trying to pretend to be something it isn’t? Perhaps I should be drawing on paper with a pencil or charcoal instead? Is ICM the way forward for me or is it just a flash in the pan? I imagine that people will either love this style of work or hate it – if I am right, how important is this to me?

I have tried to address these questions and having done so I have drawn the following conclusions.

Firstly I am enjoying what I am doing and that’s what really matters. Whether or not I am still taking ICM pictures in the weeks or months ahead is in the future. I don’t need to make definitive plans right now – Fortunatley I am free to just go with the flow. I’m not giving up what I have done in the past, merely adding to it. Being creative is about a willingness to change and being prepared to go with your instincts. If the images I make ‘mimic’ a drawing, then so what? All I am doing is making a picture using a method and medium which works for me. And finally, I make images which please me. I do not make them to please others. Obviously I welcome positive feedback, that’s only natural, but if anyone said I don’t like your latest work it wouldn’t stop me from making more of the same in the future. We all have likes and dislikes and the direction an artist chooses to follow should not necessarily be swayed by the opinions of others.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram you might have read my ‘bio’ which reads – ‘Mono photographer with eclectic tastes & occasional colour lapses.’ The colour lapses are indeed very few but I would like to think that my mono work is quite eclectic. ICM just adds another branch to my photographic tree. ICM is quite simply another path to follow and who know’s where it might lead?

Or as Steve Jobs the founder of Apple once said –

‘Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart.’