When I started this project, I was very excited and felt very secure and confident about this project. As an aspiring photographer and as a local Austinite, I felt as though I had a good grasp on what I was doing, but when I actually got to South Congress, I became a lot less confident. Due to parking difficulties, I lost a significant amount of daytime, so I was feeling very rushed to get the photos I could before the sun set, and I felt overall that what I was photographing was empty and missing something. I realize now that part of that is probably due to the fact that I am much more comfortable with black and white film photography, and producing images with color for the first time in almost a year was very strange, but at the time (and still now), I felt like the photos just sucked as a whole. I spent a long time trying to figure out if the work was good enough and whether I should go out and reshoot, but after reading more on the psychology of Gestalt I figured out that while I might not like my work this time around, I could still find elements of Gestalt in each photo. I’m not saying it’s perfect, I know this stuff feels stiff and insecure, but I think for this time around it’s the best I can do until I get someone else’s input. I definitely have a lot to improve on and hopefully I will be able to produce work that I love again, but right now I’ll keep this work and use it as a lesson for the future.
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