Week 7 was a very rainy week and most of the days it remained cloudy. In general I felt okay with these weeks photographs except for February 17 photograph. The way I execute this project there is a lot of openness in what I share. I want to photograph every day, edit and process on the same day, and that makes for good and bad days.
I feel a lot better about the February 13 and the February 18 photographs, because it makes the nothingness for me so interesting. And that is also the main reason why I like to photograph, because it captures my ordinary and maybe someone else can relate to that as well.
I’ve some catching up to do with my postings. I just finished week 11 of my 366 projects, so it must be time to drop the images of week 3.
Week 3 was a colder and more winterly week with some snow and freezing conditions. Of this week I personally favour the second photograph where the A-style of the car divides the image into two smaller photographs. It is a more layered photograph with multiple juxtapositions.
I’ve some catching up to do with my project, so I try to speed it up and drop week 2 of this year’s project. Week 2 felt like a week searching, searching for what I want to photograph, searching for the meaning of this project, searching for the mood I want to convey.
This way of photographing has no strict project definition for me, except forcing me to get out and make more photographs. In the end though I know I will end up with a body of work that could be useful. To get better or at least remain at a certain level I can better make more photographs than think of all the things I could do and how I want to do it.
Studying the work of others certainly helps to get better at seeing, but in the end you can only make the translation to your own photography by doing it yourself. And what helps for me is restricting myself on the number of choices I can make.
Therefore I only photograph with cameras with a 28mm lens. Admittedly I sometimes long for a different focal length, preferably a 35mm lens. The 28mm lens however has a field of view I really do like. It adds a certain depth to an image without distorting lines.
Since a year my main camera has become a Leica Q, alias Phoeby. The image quality is stunning due to the sensor and lens, but I still try to find out how I can make the images work for me. The sensor creates enormous RAW files that filled up my storage exponentially. And I still prefer the sketch look I always got from my small sensor cameras in the past.
The RAW files remained quite intact while editing these, so I switched to jpegs and since then have been experimenting with my editing. Even though I post week 2 photographs here it took me even longer to find a way I kind of like.
Sometimes I still use my Ricoh GR from 2013. Even though Ricoh updated their range to the GR III currently, I still find my GR good enough except for a couple of dust spots on the sensor. And I still use my phone a lot for my photography, because the small sensor still translates best to the images I really like.
From this week I kind of like the January 10 image where the shadow figures on the wall add more human presence without directly seeing them. And it was one of the last photographs I was able to make near the local train station. Soon this entry to the train station will close when the new train station will be opened, but it is a location where I took a lot of pictures. It was exceptionally ugly and unfriendly place, but the light and bright colors gave a great backdrop to work with.
It is Saturday early morning, briefly after I took my latest photograph of this week, when I wanted to write this.
All pros has it’s cons. Every do’s has it’s don’ts. Each advantage has it’s disadvantage. For every opinion I shed there is an opposite reaction. I take my photography serious, but 125tel‘s last week’s comment had me thinking. Maybe I should take it more light weighted.
With my PAD-project I noticed that I photograph subconsciously, but every time a new week starts I worry about the next photograph for that week. When each week the first day is over I already took that photograph without noticing. I however often miss that feeling of taking something special. A split second, something otherwise unnoticed, and I already took that photograph. An effort and achievement is good, but so is fun and excitement. I long for the day not thinking about taking a photograph each day.
Week 18 is finished and I photographed continuously for 491 days.
It feels like it is OK now. OK to stop this PAD project after seventy weeks. To take it more light weighted. To do things more consciously again. To free up time to experiment and learn new things. And to be more aware of that. Or like a friend said to me: “To experience instead of observe“.
It doesn’t feel like a relief nor like a disappointment. It feels like medication. When you start using it, you know it makes sense to do so. But at some point you forget applying it and you realize you don’t need it anymore. I am at this point. It has nothing to do with pressure or with the lack of inspiration and creativity. It is just this definitive and indescribably feeling that it is time to move on. That this PAD-project is finished.
There is time for a new beginning. Or at least I hope so.
A week before a friend wondered if he could continue with his PAW-project (photograph a week). He felt it was fading and was full of doubts. I insisted he wouldn’t give up. And that remaiming persistent would eventuelly be rewarding. Half way week 17 he mentioned on twitter being in a flow and that excited me. And his post and photographs are worth seeing.
There is something about sharing thoughts, ideas, desires, doubts, and expectations with other photographers. Learning what they care about. Realizing that each and everyone has a desire, there own truth. And that many try to question themself without knowing what questions to ask. They like to challenge themself without knowing what they want to do.
There is so much we do subconsciously, and like editing our photographs or arranging a portfolio, it makes a lot of sense in my opinion to not rush this process. To create some distance with your work. It was certainly the best advice I got in 2008.
There is a lot we can learn from each other. By observing them while photographing, asking them what they love and fear. By realizing that the best subjects are there between the light and darkness, nearby and abroad, and that traveling doesn’t always have to be fysically.
Reason to, why I believe it makes perfect sense to share your thoughts and discuss photographic and general issues with a small group of people. Together we can strengthen and provoke each other.
And we don’t need a lot. The best subjects are often nearby, your family and friends. The places you live and work. Yesterday was such a day in the Dutch city Haarlem (the New York neighborhood Harlem was named after this city). We strolled through the city, covered for rain, drank lots of coffee, visited the Frans Hals Museum (was a Dutch painter from the 17th century Golden Age), had more coffee, and discussed a lot. Amazing inspirational days.
Wouter Brandsma 