William Oldacre Photography

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Iteration Is Your Friend

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, yellow, blue, mauve, red, vibrant

Unnamed Twenty Six, 2017 — Sidelong :: (click to see more)

One of the few things that has really stuck with me from my Computer Science Degree is the concept of iteration. When you’re writing a program often times in order to solve a problem or to complete a task you have to adjust something then perform some series of steps – then repeat the process until some count or some value or some state has been reached. This is iteration. Here’s the definition – repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem.

This is exactly what I do in my photography, in my projects, in my life. It’s a powerful process. It’s the force of Darwinian evolution. It’s the force that’s resulted in the exceptionally complex and capable creature that is you, me – us and so much more on this planet.

I begin with a vision, an idea or concept and I go out and try to create it. I keep tweaking and adjusting variables getting closer to my original thought until I have it. Usually in the process interesting side avenues I hadn’t envisioned present themselves for exploration and I follow those too. It’s fun and gives great results. This is exactly how these pastel images came to be – an unexpected side avenue to explore.