The Art of Choosing

- an international workshop by Hanspeter Ammann at Bangkok Code 12^th February 2014

Life is full of choices; what do you want to be? Who do you want to spend your life with? What will you eat today? Will you sit in the front or the back of the classroom? -And how to make these choices? should you be using heart, brain or intuition? What if you have to be able to rationalize and defend your choice?

At the Art of Choosing workshop Photographer Hanspeter Amman opened a discussion about these and the choices an artist has to make his work. Making an exhibition, for example, he will have to choose the works to exhibit. What will be his criteria? To exhibit the works he likes the most? Or the ones he thinks will probably sell themselves quickly? Or choose the ones that work together? How, and if to frame them? How to hang them?

To demonstrate the difficulties and to practice making and defending choices, participants of the workshop got 3 photographs of Hanspeters series TEN. Firstly invited to choose their favorite picture of the tree and then to try and arrange them in order that they would choose for an exhibition set up. This exercise sprung many different interpretations and opinions, but the most interesting part was; no-one chose the exact same as the Artist himself. Sometimes there may not be only one right choice, however, only the artist could tell what the real story behind these pictures. 

Second activity of the day threw the participants even more of choices in a short time. Hanspeter specializes in portrait photography, so he borrowed his ipad for each participant to take 4 portrait pictures of the person of their choosing, in location of their choosing. Afterwards these photos were viewed in group and each photographer had to choose 1 picture of the series of 4 to delete. Hanspeter told from his own experience that one must be brave enough to tell his model what he wants and to get them to relax. This is a hard task with a stranger and so he has chosen to do portraits mainly with people he knows well, the ones he can have mutual trust and understanding with. Method of creative working is a choice perhaps best made only by creative working.