#24 - The Value of Test Prints

I’ve been shooting for years, making prints here or there for sale or exhibition. As I become more and more interested in photo books (and as I realize many of my pictures are more suited to pages than prints), I’ve been looking for ways to understand my collection of images. Trying to parse through dozens, if not hundreds, of photos on a computer screen is possible, but far from ideal.

Instead, I’ve been getting the work out into the real world, in miniature. Every few months I’ll gather the images I feel I have some connection to, and print a few A3 sheets with a 3x3 spread. Per sheet this makes for 9 roughly postcard-sized images I then cut by hand. I leave a white boarder to the images so that there is some separation between them and the rest of the world: I want the images to stand out of whatever surface I place them on.

Making test prints like this is useful in a few different ways. I’ll speak to the practical reasons in a bit, but the main reason for me is one I don’t often see mentioned. Seeing your work printed inspires a bloom of confidence in what you’re doing. Making big prints can do the same, but it’s costly and impractical to print everything in this way. Seeing my work printed, even if it’s small like this, makes it feel credible, like all the effort is worth it. They occupy their own space in the world now, not alongside everyone else’s images wherever you might share them, but they are in their context, with their photographic blood-relatives. It’s an edifying part of the process for me. It makes my pictures feel like they belong, and that they’re worthy.

The practical reasons for making these small prints are well established, so I’ll skim them. First, you can make pairs and sequences out of the images, changing them quickly and easily. This helps you find the potential relationships between them, and the so-called ‘Third Effect’. This is the new meaning made when images interact.

Second, having the images handy or on display can help you build your relationship with them. I regularly forget about images that at one point I truly loved, simply because they’re tucked away in storage. By having a preferred photo posted up where you’ll see it often, it can help you find the kind of image that will speak to it next time you’re out shooting. This helps build some coherence in your work.

The last point I want to mention is that having these small prints handy has helped me notice the recurrences and motifs in my images. It’s not always easy to know exactly what you’re being drawn to. This can be a good thing: simply responding to what inspires you to take a picture, without overthinking it, can lead to images with ambiguity and space for the viewer’s mind to go searching. Images with a very direct meaning are easy to consume, being understandable at first glance. But too much ambiguity simply makes for an opaque set of photos that aren’t understandable at all. By learning what recurs in your images, you can begin to identify the impetus for having made them in the first place. This helps you build coherence, an internal logic between them that your viewer can tap into.

If you haven’t yet, try printing out some of your recent work. And please, let me know how it goes!