The Difference Between a Photography

Collection, a Series and a Project!

Collection, Series or Project? What’s the Difference, and Why It Matters!

We photographers toss these words around all the time. Collection. Series. Project. I’ve used them interchangeably myself, and honestly, some of mine have just happened by accident!

But they aren’t quite the same thing. Once you understand the difference, you have a powerful tool for getting unstuck, growing your skills and building a real body of work!

Let’s sort it out.

Collection: “Here are 30 images I love”

A collection is simply a group of photographs you like or have gathered. Your favorites from the year would be a collection. There’s no rule tying them together, except that you love them.

Series: “These images belong together”

A series is a group of images connected by a subject, a visual element, an idea or a feeling. Each photo can stand on its own, but put them together and they say more to your viewer than any single frame could.

A series usually follows one clear rule. It might be a color, an emotion or a visual idea. A typical series runs 6 to 20 images, which is small enough to curate well and big enough to show your vision.

Here’s the part I want you to remember: a series is built on a rule, not a genre. “Landscape” is a genre. “The same lake at blue hour for a month” is a series.

Project: “I’m exploring this idea”

A project is an intentional exploration with a question, a purpose or a set of rules. You’re setting ou,t on purpose, to explore something.

Series often seem to happen organically for me. A project is different, because I decide to do it. I truly love focusing on one every once in a while.

A project can also produce a series. In fact, a big project might hold several series inside it. A series doesn’t always need a fixed order, while a project usually has a goal and maybe even a finish line!

Other forms worth knowing

Once you start working this way, you’ll find a few more forms to play with.

Photo series. Images tied by a shared theme or rule, where the order is flexible. Example: 12 red doors in one small town.

Photo essay. A series that tells a story with a beginning, middle and end. It can be deep or light, and that’s totally up to you. Example: a day with a ferry deckhand.

Photo project. The planned umbrella, with goals, rules and a finish line. Example: a year documenting one wetland. I follow a photographer in the UK who rented a house right on a beach and photographed that same beach every day, multiple times a day, for about a month. Then he turned it into a book. What a fascinating commitment!

Typology. The same type of subject, shot the same way, and shown in a tidy grid. Example: barns, all shot front-on in overcast light. The topics for these are endless.

Diptychs, triptychs and polyptychs

These are multi-panel pieces, and you may have seen them at a show or in a gallery. They’re displayed together on purpose, and each one counts as a single finished artwork.

• Diptych (2 panels): try a wide shot and a detail, a before and after, or two opposites.
• Triptych (3 panels): try a center image with two “wings,” or a sequence in time.
• Polyptych (4 or more panels): try a grid of 4, 6, 9 or 12 images, or a panorama split across frames.

Any of these can also grow into a long-term series.

So which one should you do?

Start wherever you’re drawn. If you already have a folder full of images you love, you may have the beginnings of a series sitting there. If you feel stuck, a project with a few simple rules may be exactly what you need. You don’t have to get the label perfect. You just need a starting point!

Your next step

This post comes from one of my free Zoom calls, where we walk through all of this together, slides and all. Feel free to give it a watch!