Following on from one of Stu’s old posts, I recently decided to get a bunch of prints and canvases made to stick on our walls (now that we’re in the throes of redecoration!)
What's on Your Walls?
Seeing your own work writ large on the wall really is so much more satisfying than seeing it on a computer screen, and I would advise anyone to try it.
But a very talented photographer, who goes by the name of Ryan Hyde, raised an interesting point over on my Flickr stream. Apparently he was told by his art teacher that “to surround yourself with your own photography motivates you to only be as good as you have been”, and it’s actually better to surround yourself “with work that is greater than, or at least different from, yours” to generate new inspiration.
I kind of agree, and at the same time don’t. We don’t just only have our own photos (and paintings) on the walls in our house (right now I’m looking at a print of The Scream, and on the opposite wall is an extract from Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’) – so yes, I do agree you need to surround yourself with other images to keep the creative mind striving. However, I’m never 100% happy with my own work – and having that around me just makes me think “yep, that’s a good shot – but I could’ve done this… or that… and that would’ve been so much better!”
What do you think? Do you have your own prints on the wall? Or would you rather have the work of others? Maybe we should swap?! 
I actually have both my own and others images on my walls! Seeing your own work in print is definitely recommended, you see it in a completely different way!
I’m never sure of my own taste so I don’t like having things on my wall permenantly. I have bits of string across my room (for I live with my parents) like washing lines with lots of postcards (of places and art) and postcard-size prints of photos I particularly like or that mean something to me.
I expect if I had my own house & was in charge of decorating it I’d make it a bit more orderly but I like the idea of being able to change and renew what I have on the wall, even if it is just a pile of prints that take it in turn to be on show.
Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?
Gary Winogrand didn’t develop his rolls of film until months had passed and he didn’t print for longer than that. He did it to divorce himself from what he felt/saw/ at the time he shot. That way, when he finally saw the print, it was like seeing someone else’s work.
I think putting your own stuff on the wall can be like that – not some big, snazzy framed print that dominates the decor – just a print taped to the wall by the door or somewhere that one day, after you have seen it a hundred times, you will ‘see’ it cold for the first time.
Then you can take it down, or leave it there. And yes, I 100% agree it’s good to see other people’s work.
Get books of photos from all the people whose work you admire – try Werner Bischof if you don’t know his stuff.
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=werner+bischof&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=6KOESqpo3o2MB6mq-IUI&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1