Have You Ever Reinterpreted Your Work?

Girl and Doggy in the Window © 2009 Roger Overall

My favourite photography blog is Mike Johnston's wonderful The Online Photographer. Mike's writing is intelligent, insightful and often humorous. The community that has come together around him is high class. You get very little infighting in the comments. People there love photography, adore Mike and feel at home. So they behave themselves.

A couple of years ago, Mike agreed to let me into the fold and write for him. He doesn't know it, but he is something of a mentor to me – if you can be such a thing without knowing it. I've had editorial mentors before. The partners in this company in particular: Merlin Corporate Communications. I used to work for them. They were such good employers, they ruined me for any other employer. Few companies could live up their high HR standards. (By the way, John is a novelist now). These days, Mike provides editorial guidance to me – sometimes by example, sometimes in the feedback accompanying rejected submissions.

As a documentary photographer, you might like the insights hat unfolded in the comments of this piece: The Dangers of Revisiting Your Work. Full disclosure: I wrote the article.