1. Photo Journey – The Writer’s Process
For my “journey,” I decided on the pretty short path from my bed to the coffee pot to my
desk, but more specifically, the writer’s journey from “Once upon a time…” to “…the end”
and the challenges that present themselves along the way.
The task at hand wasn’t so much capturing compelling images but deciding what
exactly those images might be. Storytelling begins internally and fittingly, most of the
barriers that stand between an idea and the process of writing it down are of the
psychological nature as well. That detail drove me to try and capture not so much
writers block as the consequences of that state of mind: procrastination, malaise,
monotony, avoidance, and a general desire to be anywhere but at the computer or with
a pen in hand. It was then a question of how to illustrate those concepts in a way that’s
both easily translated to a wide variety of audiences and still representative of my
stylistic and aesthetic preferences as a photographer and deeply personal to my
existence as a writer.
I was lucky in that photography has always been a favorite hobby of mine and I have a
pretty familiar relationship with my camera. Although, I rarely document things from my
point of view as both the subject and the artist. I know what I’m seeing on screen, how it
relates to me, and what it means to my “journey,” but I had to really crack down,
concentrate, and consider what it is my viewers would interpret from my selection of
images. I had to exercise more common sense, consider more possibilities, perceptions,
walks of life, and interpretations of each narrative in each photo, and I truly hope
learning process has created an extra coil in the part of my brain reserved for artistic
understanding.
At the end of the day, I had a great time assembling this project. I love photography and
the fact that in order to do it correctly, it requires that you have an almost out of body
experience, existing solely in the moment you’re attempting to capture and then
translate. The simultaneous serenity and puzzle-solving that comes with creating a
visual story is largely why I decided to become a writer and filmmaker. Even when
you’re up against what seems to be impassable frustration, you’re forced to remove
yourself into a state of mindfulness in order to understand the problem, and largely
yourself and why it’s so imperative to show a notion, action, or what have you in exactly
in that way.