Working the Backlog

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Sunrise #3, New Mexico, 2018

For years now I’ve had a ridiculously large backlog of images to edit…just a few months ago I had over 15,000 photographs to deal with in some fashion, with the oldest ones going back to 2014. The results of four artist residencies and my big trip out West last fall were a big part of this group. Since the beginning of 2020 I’ve been diligently going through this backlog and have been making pretty good progress overall.

Now, being forced to stay at home because of the pandemic, it looks like I’m finally going to get caught up — something that seemed very unlikely for the past years as my backlog piled up higher and higher. I’m down to about 1,000 left of that original mass of 15,000, and victory is in sight.

Many photographers are taking advantage of this backlog, too — see these two recent posts as examples — and it certainly makes sense to do so if it makes sense for your life.

For me, finally ridding myself of this backlog will help me confirm or deny a theory I’ve had for a long time. I do a terrible job getting out to photograph on a regular basis and instead mostly produce only when I take a bigger trip and get away from all my other responsibilities. (Hence, those artist residencies I mentioned…) It has always seemed an excuse, though, and it certainly seems like I should be able to get out and photograph on a more regular basis, and I’ve wondered whether the backlog served as a disincentive to take more photographs and make my problem more severe.

As spring comes here in Maine and I finish the backlog, I hope to find out if removing the backlog also removes the extra burden on taking new photographs.