Editor's note: The 2026 class of my Lightroom Classic Secrets course is open for enrollment now. Learn the tips, techniques and secrets used by the Lightroom masters. Click here for the details. Thanks for reading, Andrew.
Undertaking photography projects is a great way to focus your creative energy and build a body of work. But this doesn’t just apply to new photos – it’s an idea that works with photos you’ve already made.
Let me ask you a question. How many photos are saved on your hard drives? In my case I’ve been using digital cameras since 2006 and have over 140,000 photos. I have readers with nearly double that number. So the question is, how do you make sense of those photos, and organize them in a logical way? Photography projects are the best way to do it.
This idea applies even if you’re new to photography and have only a handful of photos to organize. But the more photos you have, the better it works.
Let’s take a look at this in detail, with an example from my own photo library that I’ve been working on.
“Old Cars of South America” photography project
Between 2006 and 2009 I spent a lot of time in South America for work and travel. One of the things I liked to do was make photos of old cars, trucks and buses. I recently decided to gather the best of these photos and turn them into a zine – a kind of mini photo book.
I call this a project because the photos are linked by a theme (old vehicles) and place (South America). The photos I selected for the project are shot in a similar style and work together as a large set.
It’s also something that’s finished. I’m not returning to South America any time soon and once the zine is printed, that’s it. The project will be done and I can move onto the next one.
You can apply this idea to your old photos. How much thinking you have to do depends on how many photos you have and how familiar you are with them. Take some time to look through your older images and look for connections, both literal and conceptual.
Place is a good way to define a project, but you might come across more abstract themes as you look through older photos.
Genre can be a good differentiator – for example, if you travel to a place and make both landscape photos and street photos, then that could be two different projects.
Have fun with the process. Don’t take it too seriously and keep the end goal in mind, which is to organize your photos and turn them into something that you can hold in your hand.
In the end, I called my project “Old Cars of South America” and included 67 photos in the zine. This article is illustrated with screenshots from the zine.
Why I love zines
Zines are fast becoming my favorite way of presenting my photos. They’re short and inexpensive to get printed. If a project resulted in ten great photos it’s not enough for a photo book but it’s plenty for a zine.
Zines (and photo books) are great for those of you thinking about your photographic legacy, which often happens as we get older. It’s unlikely your family or kids will care enough about your photos and have the time to sort through them when you are gone. But they will keep (and treasure) zines, especially if you give them the love and attention your projects deserve.
You also have the option of combining zines (or expanding them by adding photos) and turning them into photo books. In this way you can think of zines as rough drafts for your photo books. When you’re laying out zines you’re thinking about editing (deciding which photos to include) and sequencing (deciding what order to put them in). This is great training for creating your own photo books.
Learn more: How To Choose Photos That Work Together As Prints and Photo Book Layouts
Photography projects and process
This was my process as I put my project together.
1. I gathered together all the photos that I made of old cars in South America. This is easy in Lightroom Classic – I created a new Collection Set, then placed Collections inside it to help with the organization.
2. I narrowed those photos down to the 70 or so best images. These I put into a single Collection.
The benefit of using a Collection is that the photos are easy to find. You can sync the Collection. That gives you the option of turning it into a gallery to share with friends and family. You can also easily add it to an Adobe Portfolio website.
3. I exported the photos and turned them into a zine. To do this I created a PDF file using Affinity Publisher and ordered a booklet from the DOXZOO website.
4. I used the photos in a gallery on my portfolio website (click the link to see it).
Learn more: How To Make An Impressive Photography Portfolio
If I was active on Instagram or Flickr (I’m not) I could also have uploaded the photos there.
How past photography projects help with future projects
Viewing your older photos as a series projects helps you organize them and turn them into website galleries, zines and photo books. But there are other ways that it benefits your photography.
1. Projects help your creative development. When your photos are organized it’s easier to look through your old photos to get a handle on your creative development. You can see where you’ve been (creatively speaking) and think about where you are now and where you’re going in the future.
You can draw lines from your old work through the present into the future. Looking through old photos is sure to spark more project ideas.
2. You get to hold your photos in your hand. When you turn your projects into zines you get the reward of seeing your photos in a physical form. These are not just photos, they’re memories. And your memories are the sum of your life.
3. You get used to thinking in projects. There are many reasons this benefits you creatively. One of the best is that projects give you focus and direction. Instead of wandering aimlessly with your camera, making photos of whatever catches your eye, you have something to aim for and a theme to work towards. This in turn helps you develop bodies of work. All good photographers do it and so should you.
The Creative Photographer
My ebook The Creative Photographer explores seven ways that you can become a better photographer by focusing on the creative aspects of photography. Click the link to learn more or buy.
