— Donna Hopkins | Photography

This is how it goes. How my mind works and how much I love the creative process.

We were in IKEA buying a platform bed and mattress for the bedroom that used to belong to my son. He’s in graduate school and the room is still his whenever he visits, but otherwise it’s a guest room. While in IKEA, I like to look at pictures and frames. I spied this lovely set of eight images, Countryside Living, framed and ready to hang, for only $38. On closer inspection, the quality of the frames and prints left something to be desired. And, as it turns out, the set was sold out at this IKEA location. I thought about ordering them online, but then decided it might be more fun to create a similar set of prints using my own photographs. What drew my eye to this collection is the color palette, the mix of subjects, and the use of space—both filled and open.

I gathered images with a similar color palette, looking for variety in texture and tone, keeping in mind that I wanted photographs that had meaning for me. I have a wall with a gallery system for displaying art in my home with 10 maple frames in a natural finish handmade by David Rathbone of Saw & Mitre. These frames are timeless in design and built to last a lifetime. Worth every penny.

I imported the photographs into Lightroom as a collection and used the print module to arrange the images to help me visualize how they would look on the wall in our den. The challenge is to make the wall come alive. I worked on the process solo and once I thought things looked pretty good, I asked for the advice of a few trusted friends and my husband, too.

As I played with the arrangement and sequencing of the photographs, swapping pictures, moving them around, I began to see the similarities between curating a collection for a wall display and editing for a photo book. Both are forms of story telling.

Reading the Lenscratch feature, Photographers on Photographers, today, I was struck by the response Jason Fulford gave to the question, Your work has a tone of ambiguity in it, you make the audience work for understanding and meaning. How do you accomplish this?

I want to make work that keeps giving. Usually this comes together for me in the editing process, when I find combinations of pictures that fit well together in a way that I can’t explain. And then I sit on them for a while, and if they still inspire new thoughts, then they get “fixed” into place on the page.

I’m still sitting with these images.

And a couple of alternates.

Trying to make sense of the story laid before me.

Before they get “fixed” into place on the wall.