
Flags are displayed along a downtown street for Memorial Day in Orange City, Iowa Friday May 24, 2019 (PHOTO BY JERRY L MENNENGA©)
The one aspect of photography I enjoy is the creativity it allows its practitioners to pursue no matter what their subject preference to photograph. And even though subject matter is limitless, it’s what a photographer retains within the frame that makes or breaks the image and whether other individuals can relate to the image when viewing it.
I enjoy photographing in the square format. It’s a bit challenging to fill the frame with the required elements to make an image stand out. The dimensions do not always accommodate all subject matter. And since medium format film cameras are not widely used anymore, this style of photography has somewhat fallen out of view and practice.
I find the format helpful especially when working with lines and angles. There are already four right angles creating the square image which hopefully reinforces what is contained within.

A light post peeks out front a row of trees near a park in Orange City, Iowa Friday May 24, 2019 (PHOTO BY JERRY L MENNENGA©)
But maybe I am trying to hard to create something that isn’t there, but then, maybe that is the purpose. The execution of an idea is possibly a more important aspect of art, whether or not the actual art or resulting image is successful. But the feeling of something being successful helps propel the artist to continue making art and pushing boundaries (mostly their own) to experiment and create something different, new (maybe to themselves) and to keep trying. Perfecting a way of seeing and accomplishing a goal they may only vaguely understand themselves. Ah, that age old dilemma, is it the chicken or the egg that came first?
Jerry Mennenga
Sioux City, Iowa

A welcome sign to visitors on a shop downtown in Orange City, Iowa Friday May 24, 2019 (PHOTO BY JERRY L MENNENGA©)