Tuesday, 17 November 2015

OCOLOY: A One Camera, One Lens, One Year Project

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With 2016 just around the corner, many photographers will be dusting off the cameras they’ve been neglecting and making new year’s resolutions in an attempt to rekindle their creativity. If you’re looking for ideas and inspiration, here’s a good one: do a OCOLOY project. It requires using just One Camera and One Lens for One Year.

Photographer Mike Johnston suggested this concept in a blog post on The Online Photographer back in November 2014. He challenged photographers to use a single camera and lens combo for an entire year, carrying it with them everywhere and shooting at least 3-5 minutes a day.

Oh, and the challenge also included making a single standard-size print every day.

After seeing the challenge, Italian photographer Massimo Cristaldi brought the idea to Sikanie, a local photography group that was formed back in 1999. The photographers decided to give the project a shot, both individually and as a group.

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They committed to using a single camera and lens combo to shoot about 2 rolls of film per week (roughly 300 photos per month). Each photographer would choose and print just 8 of those images.

Here’s where the “group” aspect comes in: the photographers decided to meet up once a month to share and talk about their prints. “Put them all on the floor, touch them, feel, for real, face to face, not in the virtual world,” says Cristaldi. With group feedback, the photographers edited their collection of prints down to just 6 of their very best photos.

Those photos were just exhibited in a collective show at a local photography festival, which was visited by Italian photography great Mario Cresci:

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Photographer Mario Cresci visits the show.

Photographer Mario Cresci visits the show.

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Here are some of the photos that appeared in the show (click each photo to see the photographer’s set):

Photo by Castro

Photo by Castro

Photo by Fabiano

Photo by Fabiano

Photo by Carpenzano

Photo by Carpenzano

Photo by Pagano

Photo by Pagano

Photo by Cristaldi

Photo by Cristaldi

Photo by Privitera

Photo by Privitera

Photo by Lantino

Photo by Lantino

Photo by Lanza

Photo by Lanza

Photo by Cammarata

Photo by Cammarata

Finally, here’s a video by Domenico Fabiano with a behind-the-scenes look at this group’s OCOLOY project:

So if you’re looking for a photography project to tackle in 2016, think about trying a OCOLOY project. Better yet, get some friends together and work on it as a group. You’ll shoot a lot, have great discussions about your photos, and will have a potential exhibition on your hands at the very end.


Image credits: Header illustration based on photo by Joe Lanman

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