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 really neglected my blog for more than six months. Last July I suddenly stopped after I had a small accident and a couple of weeks recovering. After that I just was too busy with work. So when 2024 started I decided to commit myself to a 366 project, making and selecting photographs each and every day for this year.
I still admire those photographers that still keep blogging fanatically, especially Don Springer aka the Streetshooter keeps photographing and blogging. He names all his cameras and tries to bond with his cameras. For me cameras are mostly just tools that helps me to capture what I see and feel, but Don ups it a level and really wants to connects with his tools too. And since he used a lot more cameras than I have, respect for naming all of them.
I admit though that I actually named one of my current cameras. Her name is Phoebe, and while not the latest in terms of camera tech, it is without a doubt the best camera I’ve ever used. And best of all, it is still a camera with a 28mm lens, which is really my forte since late ’96.
While writing this I just finished day 48 and I will try to catch up on my blog in some form of another. Meanwhile I drop in the first seven photographs from the first week. I try to keep capturing things I find worth photographing.
After a comment on my previous blog post I felt the need to write a bit more. I’ll try to explain some of my reasoning for my current choices and why I post these images. Lets call it an explainer, or maybe a rant too. And a rant because I want to get some things clearly on my blog. So first the explaining bit.
I had a long break from photography and blogging before I started this new photo a day project earlier this year. And this project is absolutely not about producing great work, but all about getting into the groove again. From my point of view It is a pretty barebone project where I commit myself to selecting a photograph each and every day. As a result I don’t expect it to be great work, but at least might help me to find my mojo back. I share my work on my blog after long and deliberant considerations, but feel that part of photography is also about sharing.
So basically you witness work and learning in progress. It is tempting for me to stick to black and white photographs, I’ve been doing it for so long, but I really seek pleasure out of color. More about this later, but first back to the black and white photography.
Black and white photography has long been my visual language, but also very much for long time how my mood has been. And while I do think that I made some of my best work over ten years ago, for no money in the world would I do it over again. With the things that were happening back then and the coping of it all I delibaretely used my passion to find a means of expressing it all. It did however burn much of that passion away. In fact, at some point due to a broken hard drive I lost many of my photographs and got over it really quickly. I never felt sorry that I lost so many photographs back then.
So when someone says in a comment on my blog that my new work is like a newbi using an ancient Kodak Instamatic, you better accept it and get over it. It is not that I do it intentionally, but it is currently where my photography and mood brought me. In life we move on, for the better or worse. Back then my gritty, dark black and white photographs felt like a logical and sensitive thing to do, but when people started to expect it from me it became a burden. And the photographs already covered a burden I had with me, so it all became too much for me.
I started to photograph and share less in the last ten years. I even deleted all my images on my Instagram feed, and considered deleting my blog or most of the blog posts. I wanted to find joy in photography again, and even sometimes felt jealous of those who posted images of sunsets, flowers, pretty landscapes, their pets. In heart I am an amateur photographer, and while I do try to set standards for myself, I absolutely don’t have to comply to the expectations of my photograph’s viewers.
I don’t want to get stuck in the past. And part of my past was black and white and part was color. I shot a lot of color film in the past when I was young, until getting prints became to expensive for me while being a student. So I switched to slide film. The color palette and 36 exposures per role taught me to be very selective. Despite the temptations of digital photography I still don’t make a lot of photographs, but with digital I always struggled to get ‘my colors’ right. Digital photography was mostly black and white photography for me, but I want to move on. Nowadays I listen to music that helps me to feel better and I very much enjoy the small things in life. And therefore I want to add color to it.
And now I move on to my small rant, or call it what you will. I don’t mind criticism, good or bad. I share so I take the consequences for that too. And my intentions might not be already clear for others, but like I said here above and many weeks ago, I photograph without any expectations and will be thrilled if this all makes me enjoy my photography again. And I dare you to comment, feel free, please, but be prepared to take your responsibility too. Nowadays it seems the freedom of speech is the most important thing in the world, especially for the attick web warriors hidden behind nicknames or just a first name. I ‘m convinced though that freedom of speech comes with important responsibilities too.
When you leave a comment on my blog, I and the readers should at least be able to see what you’re up too. Like a form of accountability. So I don’t ask you to use your full name when commenting on my blog, but at least share your website or whatever so others can make a judgement too. Critics should be explained in my opinion, a comment like great photographs might briefly feel like a ‘like’ but is not really helpful. “These are bad photographs”, isn’t really helpful too. I ask you to explain it, so it can help both you, me, and other readers.
I’ve always been very easy with moderation of comments in my blog. I only delete spam, but always approve every other comment. But I am drawing a line now. If you get mean or personal I will remove it or not approve it. If you don’t add a website, so I and the readers can at least check what you’ve been doing (photography wise), I will not approve it either. My intentions are not to name and shame you, but I chose to make myself vulnerable, and have therefore the right to protect myself too. Otherwise I might close the comment and like section, which I did a couple of years ago.
Writing all this feels very awkward to me, but I feel I have to do it. Thankfully there are still quite a lot of people blogging and sharing, but more and more people don’t allow comments anymore. Then it becomes one directional and it loses a bit of the web 1.0 identity. This blog has been with me for 16 years now, but throughout the years it came with many doubts too. Should I continue it, should I remove some blog post, especially the former ‘impressions’ articles about the cameras I used (which still drives most of the traffic), should I delete the blog, or change it into a less photography centric blog? I still don’t know what to with it, but for now will continue what I’ve been doing since 2007.
Wouter Brandsma 