Walking together, apart

A photographic collaboration.

Ping!

my laptop chimes, letting me know I have a new e-mail. It’s from Manuela. Attached to the e-mail are 21 files - photographs she made on a recent morning walk with her dog.

A while ago, Manuela had the idea we both use our morning ritual of walking our dogs and turn it into a photographic collaboration.

If you are not familiar with Manuela’s photography - she is a master of combining photographs, either turning them into stunning diptychs or multi-layered compositions. Her eye for selecting and combining photographs is incredible and I find her work deeply inspiring.

It is needless to say I was humbled when Manuela invited me to collaborate with her to create a series of diptychs together.

The idea was simple: we would each go on a walk with our dogs and cameras, make photos, and send them to each other afterward. Then, on another walk, we would look for something that felt like a visual response to the other person's photographs.

I studied the photographs Manuela had sent me, thinking about possible responses, before heading out the next morning. I already knew where I wanted to go: the beach by the Elbe River - a familiar place. I also thought about photographs I might want to make.

It was interesting to me, which of the 21 of Manuela’s photos I still remembered the next morning. Of course, I could have saved them to my phone and looked at them while on my walk, but I liked the extra challenge of relying on my memory.

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Some of the photographs I made as I always do: by observing what is around me and photographing what stops me in my tracks and speaks to me. But this time, I also looked for images, that might work as a response.

For some of Manuela’s photographs, I didn’t have an immediate response. It was only later, when I viewed them side by side on my computer, that they found each other. And while some pairings didn’t come together as I had hoped, others turned out surprisingly well.

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I have participated in diptych challenges with other photographers on Substack before, but we always used photos from our archives - photographs, that were immediately ready to pair and view together. Going out and intentionally seeking responses was a new challenge, one I really enjoyed.

I wondered how this collaboration was for Manuela so I reached out to her afterward and asked her a few questions:

Was the process any different for you using my photographs?

It wasn’t much different. In the past, a lot of my diptychs and triptychs were created using, for example, vintage photographs, obviously taken by someone else, or photographs that had been stored in my archives for a long time which almost feels like using images taken by somebody else.

Occasionally, I give myself the challenge of picking a rather random assortment of images from my archives to create diptychs. I love the process of finding a possible connection between images whether it is only a visual one or metaphorical one as well.

I enjoy the challenge of figuring out connections that are not obvious right away, so the process to me was very similar to working with your images.

Did my photography influence you while out there “finding responses”?

For sure. I tried to take in your images before I went out to photograph myself. I wanted to respond to the mood and tones and themes in your images and kept them in my mind while walking. I thought of possible things to photograph in response to yours before I went out, but honestly, the weather was so unpredictable, I wasn’t sure what I was going to be able to get or whether I was going to “find” the images I had in mind.

3. Did you take photos you wouldn’t have made otherwise?

I wanted to respond to yours, so that influenced what I noticed I am sure, but there was nothing I wouldn’t have taken otherwise. I always keep my images rather simple when thinking about diptychs, so that’s what I did. We agreed beforehand on shooting black and white, so I thought mostly about light, contrast, lines and patterns, but otherwise, I think the images look like my images. I could have and would take them even without the collaboration, but I will say that they were taken with a diptych mindset if that makes sense.

4. Did you learn anything new collaborating with another photographer?

I have never done anything like this but wanted to for a long time. What I learnt is that it is super fun to do. It is a different kind of challenge and a different way of working, and I have enjoyed it so much, I want to do it again. I am sure it can be challenging at times and might not always go as smoothly as this one, but I think if you stay flexible and open minded, it will only add to and enrich your creative process.

5. Were there any unexpected surprises or other takeaways for you?

The surprises happened while creating the diptychs. Some of the images I took directly in response to a particular image of yours, but then ended up creating a completely different pair, and in a few cases didn’t end up using those images at all. So, I think, what it showed me once again is that you can have a very clear vision, but then during the process, it turns out differently than expected. I think that this is always part of the creative process and is part of what makes it fun and unexpected. Balancing plan and structure with play and experimentation is what it’s all about, and being open to new and, in some cases, even better results.

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The diptychs in today’s newsletter are the ones I put together.¹ Manuela will publish her creations alongside my answers to these questions in her newsletter, which will be released on Sunday. You can find her newsletter here.

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Have you collaborated before? What was your experience like? And if you haven’t, what’s holding you back? I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment.

That’s all from me this week.

Thank you so much for being here and for taking the time to read this week’s newsletter. It means a lot to me.

X,

Susanne

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1. For the ones of you who want to know which photo belongs to who:

Diptych 1: Manuela left - Susanne right

Diptych 2: Manuela top - Susanne bottom

Diptych 3: Manuela right - Susanne left

Diptych 4-7: Manuela top - Susanne bottom

Diptych 8: Manuela right - Susanne left

Diptych 9: Manuela left - Susanne right