by Daniel Milnor
Photographer: Daniel Milnor
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I believe personal work is the most important work a photographer can do.  Personal work is created without limitations or the needs of a specific client. This work allows the photographer to experiment, take chances, succeed or fail without repercussion. “On Approach” is one of the many bodies of personal work, I have undertaken in recent years.

When I started this project I was looking for something specific, something that required no permission, access or red tape to cross. I was looking for something close to home, something so close that I could work entirely from my bicycle. I was also looking for something different from anything I had ever done before, something graphic and not revolving around people.

Living close to the airport I often found myself on my bike as planes began their approach to John Wayne Airport in Southern California. One day I looked up and watched as a plane descended above a sky filled with power lines.  It was then I knew I had my project.

From the beginning I knew I would work in black and white. What I didn’t want was a “pretty” set of images. Sometimes with sky and color the actual content of an image could get lost as the viewer is more entranced by the color than the actual image. I worked in both 6x9 with a Fuji rangefinder as well as 35mm using both a Leica and a Canon.

Within a few months I had amassed a set of images that I thought could make an interesting book. Most of the time, when working on personal work, I’m thinking in story form, or book form if you will. I’m looking for groups or sequences of images that form a body of cohesive imagery.

At the same time I began thinking about the “On Approach” book, Blurb released a new, 5x8, black and white only format. After checking out a sample of the new book style, I realized it was the perfect fit for my plane images. The paper in the 5x8 books, which were originally intended for text only, is a slightly subdued off-white color. I decided to print the images with a very high contrast, which on one hand would counter effect the off-white paper, but would also eliminate all traces of the sky in the photograph. What remains is close to pure black and pure white.

After receiving the first copy of the book I knew it was one of the best publications I had ever created. They say a good book must be more than the sum of its parts. I think “On Approach” is more than just a book of photographs.
 

FTC Disclaimer:  At the time of this publishing, WeArePhotographers.com does not have a commercial relationship with our guest blogger Daniel Milnor and does not receive any consideration from the sale of his book at Blurb.com.