Each fine art photo series I produce has its own distinctive vibe. I craft a naming convention for each set of images that differs from those preceding it.
Just before launching my new series, Unnatural World, I met with a handful of distinguished fine art photography curators and sought their advice about my work. Unprompted, several of them politely suggested that the working image titles could use a rethink.
Hey, but what about those clever titles? One curator referred to the “poetics” of naming conventions and said I should refresh my approach. He said I needed to stop trying to frame a viewer's interpretation of the image and go with something more neutral and prosaic.
A shot that I’d called Overlooked, depicting Yosemite Valley and the aftereffects of fire, would now become Valley/Burn. The backslash separating the words signifies the juxtaposition of the environment and how man has impaired it.
You may well ask, why not name every image Untitled 1, 2 or 3, etc? That’s a little too non-descriptive for me. This series shows what man is doing to the environment both literally and figuratively. Undoubtedly the next series will be completely different. Let me know what you think at rusty at rustyweston.com or on Instagram as @rusty.weston.
Mountain/Window, from Unnatural World, explores the human expressions that obscure our environment in real and imagined ways.