All photographs from Mexico Between Life and Death ©Harvey Stein 2018, Text ©Harvey Stein 2025
I love doing long term projects since I feel engaged and energized by them. They give me direction and a sense of working on something important.
They motivate me to get out and about and shooting. They focus and concentrate my energies and can be very rewarding. They tell me where to travel, what and where to shoot, what to read and get involved with; doing them makes me feel more alive and connected. They continue my education. I can honestly say that they make me a better person.
Self-assigned projects mean you have no bosses and all the time to do what you want/need to do, it’s a great way to work.
For me, a long-term project consists of 40-200 photos and can often lead to publishing a book.
Time is an important element, it gives perspective, insight, and knowledge. We need time for researching our subject, and time to look at what we shoot to continue to make the project stronger. Patience and pace are important. Researching the subject is usually important, the more we know the better. Time for shooting and for constantly choosing the images and sequencing them is important. Start sequencing as soon as possible, best at the onset of the project.
Be able to articulate the theme, publishers like to hear themes stated in “elevator” pitches. Again, the sooner you have a theme, the better but it doesn’t have to be right away. Be intuitive but also know as much about the subject as you can.
Anyone can take a terrific image or two. The mark of a more advanced photographer is making photographs on a theme, working on a project in depth and over time that has consistency and coherence.
The long-term project can increase our determination, reduce shyness and indecision. It makes us more aggressive by pressuring us to go after those images needed to make the project better/great. It suggests goals, and increases the desire to accomplish and complete a body of work. It is usually done in the context of an extended photo essay.
Projects make us more focused, more determined, braver to make the photo, more motivated. It inspires us to work toward completing something big, and perhaps getting us to think about publishing that book we’ve always wanted to do.
Shoot what you are interested in and/or what you want to learn more about, become the expert on the subject. Photograph as personally as possible, from your history, your environment, your interests and knowledge. Don’t be influenced by what others say or think. Be your own guide, it might take longer to reach your destination but it will be a more exciting journey, one filled with more insight and knowledge gained.
The best way to start a project is to shoot lots and let the images speak to you. Review your work often, let the images guide you, tell/show you what you are interested in. Get ideas from the photographs. How do we get ideas? Not from sitting at a desk and forcing them to appear. We get ideas peripherally, and by indirection when in the shower, jogging, stuck in traffic, dreaming, when waking up and/or about to fall asleep, etc. Ideas arrive as if by magic. We get ideas from other arts-dance, film, theater, painting. We get ideas when we are photographing and also when looking at our work. Be open to what your images, your art is trying to tell you, see trends, patterns, paths to follow in your work, BE OPEN. And live life, we get our ideas from life and from living full and active and exciting lives.
Choose rich, accessible subjects that you can go back to often. Even if far away. Best if the subject is close, like in your bedroom or backyard. You then don’t have to travel much to your subject. You then can shoot almost anytime. But if far away, that’s OK too. This just limits our time to work on it. But when you do work on it, the time spent is more precious.
Choose a subject with lots of visual possibilities, with an edge. Avoid boring subject matter but everything is fair game. Everything has been written. Everything has been photographed. It’s not so much what you photograph but how you photograph.
Love what you do, what you are doing. Imagine nothing else will make you as happy as making photographs. Be willing to sacrifice for your art. There is nothing you would rather do.
Go out today or tomorrow with your eyes wide open and your heart full. You will find your way with patience and determination.
Text and images ©Harvey Stein 2025
About Mexico Between Life & Death
The photographs for the book, Mexico Between Life and Death, were made during 14 trips to Mexico in 18 years, from 1993 to 2010. It was published in 2018 by Kehrer Verlag, a German publisher. After I finished shooting, it took me about eight years to understand what I shot, how to sequence and design it and to find a publisher. The beauty of doing books is that there aren’t deadlines until a publisher wants to make the book. This gives us time to more fully understand our work and to play with the multiple possibilities that all book projects present to their authors.
The book is available on Amazon; signed copies are available from me, I can be reached through my website, harveysteinphotography.com. Cost is $45 plus shipping.
Where to buy the book:
