Where To From Here ?

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These past few weeks I've been going through nearly all my photographic archives. A first book of photos about the Causse Méjean in southern France is at the publisher. A second book project with even more photos in it, about cemeteries, is in the works. Selecting the photos and doing the page layout for each of the 98 pages in these books is a monumental task, but there is something highly satisfying about the work. The time spent in these efforts, not to mention the recent holidays, explains why I haven't been out and around the blogosphere as much as I would like. Hopefully when the second book is off to the publisher I'll be able to get some more sleep and get out to visit more.
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When I set out to start this blog over three years ago I had in mind that the Magic Lantern Show was in itself a sort of book project, a web book if you like, documenting a small part of my past photographic work, and continuing to present new photos as time goes by. I would be dishonest if I were to say that I didn't harbor some hopes that the blog would in some unknown way lead on to other opportunities to see some of the many photos herein published in one way or another, or perhaps give rise to ways to display them in public, and even sell some of them. That hasn't really happened yet ; perhaps a blog among all the millions of blogs out there, all clamoring for attention, is not the right vector for seeking further outlets for creativity, although it has led to meeting all of you wonderful people, which is priceless of course.
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The small showing still in progress in Paris is a first step in the direction of finding other outlets. The opening of a virtual gallery on the ImageKind.com site is a second step. Having two self-published books in hand is a third step. But I can see that if any further progress is to be made, I will have to put together a portable "show" of sorts, between large prints of photos, the books, and a collection on an iPad, and then go start pounding the streets of Paris, knocking on doors, wearing down shoe leather, talking to people, asking for direction, and hoping somewhere a door will open, a receptive eye and mind will resonate on the same wavelength as these photographs, such as they are. And then where ? Realistic ? Unrealistic ? I honestly don't know. But without trying I will certainly never know. Time will tell.
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In the meanwhile, here are a few photos for your pleasure. The first two will be in the cemetery book. The second is my entry for Weekend Reflections over at James' fine meme site. The yellow leaf in rainwater with trees reflected was on a memorial marker in a German cemetery near the Verdun battlefield. And the third is for those of you who enjoyed the previous post below of scrapbooked photos on a wall in Paris. . . another collection of images, under glass this time.
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