Iteration Is Your Friend

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

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