An Amtrak employee shuts a door as a train departs from Eugene, Oregon on 1 January 2019.
I failed in my original goal for this blog. I thought if I held myself accountable for shooting everyday I’d see a huge benefit to my photography but that didn’t happen. Or at least it didn’t happen for a year as I’d intended it too. I still shot a lot.
Reading, listening to podcasts, watching videos on youtube all began to consume more of my time as I sought to continually improve the quality of the photos I was taking. Shooting film really threw a wrench in my plans as well. Turns out analog photography is not conducive to a daily photography blog. It’s very rewarding in all sorts of ways—I think it is from shooting, developing, and printing my own film that I learned the most this year—but it is just not cut out for the kind of immediacy I wanted. Film did make me begin to understand the concept of deep work as I spent hours working in the dark room on a single print. The hours of focus on a single photograph, first as a projection then, viewed through the chemistry, under the orange safety light, made me pick apart every detail of the image. It is this time that made me come to understand so many of the details I like, and even more so what I loathe, in the images I see and capture.
It is true I did not do what I intended to do but I learned so much more than I thought I would and for this I am grateful. So as we close the door on the past year I consider about all the people and lessons I’m grateful for and with bright eyes looking toward the future I am ready to usher in a new year with boundless potential.
A man sleeps in a coffee shop in Eugene, Oregon on 1 January 2019. In 2018, the coffee shop as public space was subject of significant public debate.
It’s important to contrast this year’s goals with last year’s. Last year it was important to build a habit so that I might take a better, more technical picture. This year I want my photos to have more meaning. I’m going to get closer, make myself more uncomfortable, and hopefully in doing so I’ll be able to say more.