MEG Favorites, Part II

Last week, we shared several MEG members' favorite images from among the thousands they captured in 2011. In our second post in this series, this week we see favorites from MEG members Colleen Henderson, Michael Borek and Janet Matthews and learn why they chose them.

Colleen Henderson

                                                     (c) Colleen Henderson

There are several reasons this image rose above the others. First, for the second year in a row, for about half the year (beginning in early spring and running thru late summer), I committed to creating a visual "Daily Journal," (my shortened version of a 365 project).  This involves creating images daily and then selecting only one image each day to post to the web.  Both years I have found the process demanding and challenging, but also very rewarding. Not only does it provide a visual window into my daily life, it greatly increases my awareness of the world around me, sparks my creativity, encourages me to make images of scenes I might ignore, and often leaves me with unexpected gifts from the "photo gods." Cathedral Gate is one such gift. 

Second, Cathedral Gate surprised me a bit when I returned home from shooting and began post-processing.  What I'd thought was a detail shot of a wooden gate and its locking mechanism, turned into a semi-abstract image made up of squares, rectangles and circles with varying degrees of tone, color and texture.  I enjoy the arrangement of shapes and the interplay of tones.  The overall balance of the image leaves me with a calm and peaceful feeling.

Michael Borek

                                                          (c) Michael Borek

I took this picture in Montana last summer. The combination of a typical landscape with  common traffic signs created a reality that felt familiar, yet strange. It feels like there's a metaphorical context to the image:  You need to stop because you cannot continue in the same direction and get where you are headed if you continue on this road.

Janet Matthews 

                                                         (c) Janet Matthews

I'm not sure that I have a single favorite image from 2011. But I do have a project from the past year that I am excited about. Last spring, I was en route to pick up my morning latte and I saw a truck carrying ticket booths traveling in the opposite direction. The carnival was back in town. I had been shooting carnival images with a toy camera for several years and thought I was done, but that day I decided I still wanted to continue this work. I decided to take a completely different approach: to try to capture images of the carnival culture, the people who set it up and take it down, control the rides, work the booths and live with the show for the season. This approach was way out of my comfort zone of creating work in a studio, by myself at my own pace. This image is one of several favorites from that experience. It shares my interest in structure and composition as well as documenting one of the workers in his environment. I followed these folks to several locations and am looking forward to meeting up with them again in the coming year.