Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes

Mini Challenge: Chaotic

September 17, 2026 (updated September 17, 2026)

Lee Friedlander, Western Landscapes

Submission Instructions:

Due: Thursday, October 22nd, 2026.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/2u6kry1r34e016glw3hm

Submission: Up to 7 Photographs.

File Naming: James-Maher-1.jpg, etc. ***Please, start your filenames with your first name!!!

File Size: 1200 pixels (or similar) at 72DPI

Title: No photo titles

 

Mini Challenge: Chaotic

Going forward we are going to do both mini and larger challenges. This one is short and simple. Four weeks, up to seven photos, and one idea. Play with the idea of chaos.

What is chaos? You tell us. Maybe it’s chaos in the frame like in Lee Friedlander’s Western Landscapes. Or maybe it’s chaos in your life or mind. Maybe it’s in the home. I assume many of you will be creating chaotic feeling frames, but I can also see an idea for very unsettling frames that are orderly and perfect, chaotic in the way that the American Psycho move is chaotic.

Much of what we’re taught about photography is about cleaning things up. Simplify. Isolate the subject. Get rid of the clutter. Watch your edges. I both love and hate those rules because they’re very important to know about, but it’s just one way of doing that.

Lee Friedlander is the patron saint of obvious unsettling chaos. Look at the Western Landscapes below. He walks into a thicket, points the camera at the densest part, and somehow the mess becomes a perfect picture. He did the same thing with city streets for fifty years, poles and signs and his own shadow cutting through everything. The trick isn’t that he found order in the chaos. It’s that he trusted the chaos to be enough.

But at the same time, even his more orderly photos, his interiors, his portraits continued to feel like the chaos of his mind. That is the work of a mature artist who shows himself in his work.

A hedge. A closet. A neighbor’s house. A kitchen counter. A medicine cabinet. A crowd. The junk drawer. That’s one way to go. Or a bill, an obsessively cleaned room, an obligation. Don’t only think about what looks like chaos. Think about what causes chaos in your life and consider photographing that as a form of therapy.

Deadline is October 22nd. As always, no contests, no winners, I’ll put everything together and we’ll look at it as a group.

Here are some of the Western Landscapes to get you going:

Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes
Lee Friedlander, from Western Landscapes

All photographs © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery.

Challege #22: Group Project

February 11, 2026 (updated June 8, 2026)

Rebecca Norris Webb / My Dakota

Challenge #22: Group Project

For this challenge, we are going to set up groups of three. Here you will think of a theme or idea for your project to submit for us all to review.

It has to include all new work shot over the next 3-4 months (I will add an extension, and possibly add an individual sub challenge in a few months as well). You will sequence/weave each member’s work together to present as a whole without attribution for individual images. You will have to agree on a concept, a look, and a style (two votes wins). Presentation and integration is key.

And you will need to hold each other accountable to make sure everyone’s shooting.

We’ll talk about communicating through email or zoom after we get some signups. I will put people together by communication preferences.

 

Submission Instructions:

Due: June 18th, 2026.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/ckmtv467j2bgj1kx4txw

Submission: Up to 8 photographs per person.

File Naming: Group-number-1.jpg, etc. ***Please, start you filenames with your first name!!!

File Size: 1200 pixels (or similar) at 72DPI

Title: No photo titles

Challege #21: Feeling & Emotion

October 8, 2025 (updated February 6, 2026)

Trent Parke, The Black Rose

Submission Instructions:

Due: Jan 31st, 2026.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/3v1Ie4mK1mRRYgUh17pD

Submission: Up to 7 Photographs.

File Naming: James-Maher-1.jpg, etc. ***Please, start you filenames with your first name!!!

File Size: 1200 pixels (or similar) at 72DPI

Title: No photo titles 

Challenge #21: Feeling and Emotion

This should be a challenge that everyone will want to attempt. The concept is simple, but I want you to push yourself.
 
The deadline is January so some of you will be able to photograph family events for this project, but also so some of you can attempt different styles and ideas before deciding what to submit.
 
This is a series challenge and not an individual photograph challenge. The series, idea, and sequencing is what needs to create the emotion. Individual emotional photos that do not relate to each other is the antithesis of this challenge.
 
Each series that you work on, the final submission or others, needs to be consistent in look and have an overall cohesiveness to the series.
 
And a suggestion is to think about how you are currently feeling, the issues, the trials and tribulations, the good and the bad that you are going through and to try to put that spirit into what you submit. That is just a suggestion and not a rule for this challenge though.
 
Some photographers to research:
 

Challege #20: Teach Us Something

July 18, 2025 (updated July 18, 2025)

Rebecca Norris-Webb

Submission Instructions:

Due: Sept 1st, 2025.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/tlYwMIue6YnymJWhOFof

Submission: Up to 7 Photos and 7 Paragraphs of text.

File Naming: James-Maher-1.jpg, etc. ***Please, start you filenames with your first name!!!

File Size: 1200 pixels (or similar) at 72DPI

Title: No photo titles 

 

Challenge #20: Teach Us Something

 

I want us to practice combining words and photographs (although it’s okay to submit photos without any text if you prefer).

The goal here is to teach us something with a mixture of photography and writing. This can be something you know and want to photograph or something you want to learn or no more about and you can make us a part of that learning process. You can teach us about a place, an area, a person, an organization, a topic, a movement, a piece of history. Use your imagination here and take this in any way you want.

Submit up to 7 photos and 7 paragraphs of text. I will turn this into a PDF to share with the Salon.

Challege #19: People, Projects, & Purpose

March 10, 2025 (updated June 11, 2025)

Gregory Halpern

Submission Instructions:

Due: July 1st, 2025.

Links: 

People: https://www.dropbox.com/request/VXVk5sgAJOiYBIMSGaJu

Projects: https://www.dropbox.com/request/1PhgLHbKWKWSffFvcC7n

Purpose: https://www.dropbox.com/request/2LHZWRrTwGlEnBYA4hW6

File Naming: James-Maher-1.jpg, etc. ***Please, start you filenames with your first name!!!

File Size: 1200 pixels (or similar) at 72DPI

Title: No title

Challenge #19: People, Projects, & Purpose

 
I’m going to give a quick motivational speech. Think of me for a second like an over-invested high school football coach.
 
Spring is here and this is where we need to knock off a few pounds and start walking more. Shake off the cobwebs both photographically and socially. Get away from the introverted depressed winter and kick ourselves into shape. The quicker you start, the longer the Spring and Summer will feel. Get out there and interact. Make a note to talk to two people the first time you’re out. Get back in there and with it.
 
Shake off political anxiety by connecting with people, communities, and projects on the local level. Figure out if you can use your camera to help in any way.
 
*And just a disclaimer. Please be careful. Emotions may be charged for certain people.
 
This challenge will have three parts, and you can submit 5 images separately to each depending on what inspires you. Submit to only one or submit to all three if you wish. I will create a separate post of photos for each section.
 
People: 5 photos: Candids or portraits are accepted, although I’d like most of you to consider doing some portraits (if you don’t want to, that’s is totally fine though!) Act like an excited photography nerd an use this challenge as a way to connect with people. Be excited by them, ask them questions, say hi. Everything is crazy right now, we need more friendly interactions and kind conversations.
 
Projects: Submit up to 7 images brainstorming an idea for a project, improving an existing in person project, or following a new idea. And consider working on this project in the background.
 
Purpose: 5 photos that capture meaning or purpose, either for you or for others.
 
This is a lot, so we have 3 months to complete (June 1st). We’ll have an initial talk about it and another talk halfway through.
 
Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!

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