Seeking objectivity: When evaluating your own work, sometimes it’s best to leave it up to others

 

 

It can be very difficult to evaluate your own work. You may consider one image to your best while someone else may favor a very different image of yours. Tony Northrup argues that it's even impossible to objectively view your own work. You, and everyone else, view every image through their own personal perspective. Within that perspective we bring memories, thoughts, feelings and emotions specific to our own unique experience. When looking at your own work, you will bring memories of capturing the image. The sights, sounds and smells of the scene. You have access to sensory and emotional information that nobody else will have when they view your work.

Ultimately, sometimes it's best to leave the evaluation of your work to others. Tony wanted to update and reduce the size of his portfolio and he realized that he simply could not bring himself to delete any of his images. This is an issue many photographers, myself included, have when trying to make selects or trim down a portfolio. You may be able to find faults with your own work, but it's another task altogether to be able to remove your images from display.

To help him streamline his portfolio, Northrup left it up to others and let people vote on which images to keep and remove from his portfolio. It can be hard to trust others with your work, but they may well be in a much better position to judge the quality of your photographs.

Of course, you cannot please everyone. People have different tastes and preferences, formed by their own experiences and feelings, so you will be hard-pressed to ever capture a universally loved image. In the end, choosing the images that best represent you and your photography lies in your hands, but it's important not to overlook the helpful role strangers can play in shaping your selections.

(Via Tony & Chelsea Northrup)