We’re happy to announce that the recipient of March’s Flattr-ing is Peter Hoffman.  The Chicago-area photographer and M.A. grad of Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication has long been on our radar for his innovative and introspective approach to photography.  We’ve selected one of his more experimental pieces for this Flattr-ing, but we positively encourage everyone to check out his entire website.  It’s full of gems.

Before digging to deep into Hoffman’s work, we’d like to point out that Flattr recently announced a substantial change to its model.  Users no longer need to pay a monthly minimum to have a Flattr button on their site.  We think that’s exceptional because that means that there are no good reasons left for photographers not to sign up.  After all, we’d love to give you free money.

Anyhow, back to Hoffman.  He’s eloquent enough that we’ve elected to excerpt his full explanation of his project, The Loop Derivatives, to introduce the body of work that we’ve Flattr’d.  Hoffman explains:

“Almost since I started photographing, I’ve had other people invested in, and informing the outcome of my work. I pretty much started as a photographer doing assignments, then went to grad school. There was always some reason I had to make images other than to just make them, which, honestly I think is a blessing much of the time, but it was time to make some work that I didn’t have to consider the consequence of. Just make it, you know? Like, we apply for these grants all the time and tackle these social issues and try to pitch things and you just have to have your ducks in a row to do this work and I just didn’t want to explain myself or even really think about all that stuff. I just wanted to be selfish and come up with something cathartic and borne out of my own existence and questions and curiosities etc. I guess I came to the conclusion that sometimes straight photography was too explicit for what I wanted. Most of the time it’s perfect, but sometimes it didn’t feel right. I almost feel like a kid again discovering something new when I try to make work that is just purely expression, curiosity, concern, whatever it may be. So, when failure doesn’t mean a bummed out editor or a drop in your GPA or whatever, when it only means you tried something and it didn’t work out, that’s pretty wonderful. I don’t know that I could do all my work like that, I enjoy having others personally invested in the work I’m making, but it was freeing to consider it wasn’t a factor for this.

“So, [with] that in mind I started a few bodies of work that were much more about the process of making the work than they were about coming up with a ‘good image.’  These projects were based on a sense of place and reacting to that place in whatever way felt right. The Loop Derivatives series are digitally composited negatives from scenes I’ve shot downtown Chicago. I photograph out in the Loop pretty often, and there’s a body of more traditional street work I’ve been working on as well but the Derivatives are more of a gut reaction. Each piece is more or less a summation of a session of walking around down there, where a single photograph would just be too explicit. When I photograph for this work I really am only looking for color, form and shape. I just want the complete visually basic properties that have the potential to communicate more, albeit in an abstract way. I’m a person that responds very emotionally to the places I’m in, and downtown Chicago is just a confusing mess to me. Sometimes it’s full of life, but sometimes it just feels like this massive concrete and glass ghost town (I am down there at night/evening occasionally). It’s hard to me to explain this work to be honest, I hope the images explain a bit more about the place.”

According to Hoffman, our monthly Flattr-ing scored his next ten rolls of Porta for the project.  Which, incidentally, is the kind of monthly token that we’re thrilled to offer.  We hope you’ll also participate and  join us in spreading the kudos around.  Be among the first to Flattr Hoffman’s latest project by following these three easy steps:

1. Sign up for Flattr 

2. Send us links to your blog, site, or project via LUCEO’s Facebook or Twitter accounts

3. Join us in Flattr-ing Peter Hoffman’s project

We're happy to announce that the recipient of March's Flattr-ing is Peter Hoffman.  The Chicago-area photographer and M.A. grad of Ohio University's School of Visual Communication has long been on our radar for his innovative and introspective approach to photography.  We've selected one of his more experimental pieces for this Flattr-ing, but we positively ...