Relax. This isn’t a navel-gazing retrospective. It’s an effort at editing my photo library.
I took some time last night to go through the photos I shot in 2010, to find ones that were good. I do this long after taking them, to distance from the emotional connection – it’s easy to think a photo’s good if it’s of family member etc… if you like the content or moment. But I try to go through on a second (and third, and fourth) pass to find ones that are good on their own. I started doing this delayed review [after watching an interview with Gary Winogrand](http://www.darcynorman.net/2007/03/29/gary-winogrand-on-risk-taking/), where [he mentioned](http://2point8.whileseated.org/2007/03/23/garry-winogrand-with-bill-moyers/) that he doesn’t even develop film for at least a year after he shoots it, to separate himself from the emotion of the moment.
Last year, I figure I shot at least 10,000 photos (probably over 20,000 based on my keep/delete ratio). I kept just over 2,000. And after going through the 2010 album 4 times, starting at 1 star then voting up the best of each round and moving on to repeat the process, I [wound up with 70 “good” ones](http://www.darcynorman.net/bestof/2010/). That’s not bad. I could probably go through the set a couple more times to winnow it down some more. Maybe next year.
I said this in a comment somewhere else, but the fact you took 20,000 photos last year is inane enough. But add to that you whiddling it down to 70 good ones, and that is simply crazy. It speaks volume about you as artist, and the art of failure to make something good. I’m sure thousands of your photos were better than I good dream of, but the ability to edit, and pare, and cut—that is the art—a laborious process of taste and saying what’s good. Committing to it, and the idea you will take photos that you don;t like, that suck in your eyes is simply part of the process, the idea that failure is necessary and generative. A key lesson for ds106, it can;t be about comparison, esp. invidious comparison, but about deciding hat you like, what you want, and failing on the way to getting there.
I love this post for so many more reasons than the 70 awesome photos.