Photo Journal: Does This Photograph Still Represent The Way I See?
There are photographs I made years ago that I was enormously proud of. Some represented the best work I was capable of making at the time. I have not stopped liking those photographs, and I do not think making them was a mistake.
But my eye has changed.
What I look for in light, color and gesture has evolved. My standards have changed. The tools available to me in digital photography have improved enormously, and they have changed what I see in an image. The stories I want my photographs to tell have become clearer as well.
An image that once belonged in my portfolio may no longer belong there.
Nothing happened to the photograph. I changed.
Hoar Frost covered Bison crossing cold stream at dawn in Yellowstone National Park. Photo © copyright by Vincent Mistretta.
That can be surprisingly difficult to accept. I chose the image. I had a reason. Perhaps it represented something I had worked a long time to achieve. It is easy to keep explaining that earlier choice instead of looking at the photograph in front of me.
The question I find more useful is simple: does this photograph still represent the way I see?
It leaves room for the answer to be yes. Revisiting a portfolio does not mean finding something to remove. An image can continue to belong, and leaving it exactly where it is can be a considered decision.
But when the answer changes, I do not need to rewrite the past. The photograph can have mattered then without representing my work now.
I owe the earlier choice an honest examination. I do not owe it a permanent place in the portfolio.
Adapted from “Would I Make It Again?”, published in Measured Movements on September 28, 2026.