The hiatus
Why photography felt heavy lately
I have been on a photography hiatus for the past 2 months. December really drained me mentally, and living in UK in January means: rain, 27 days out of 31. I also had some health issues, which resulted in me spending time with my mother in Italy while she had an eye operation (all good btw). Then, with all the reassuring news from the world, I guess my head was all over the place and not really in the mood for get in loser, we’re going to shot some pictures!
When I finally calmed down and the weather was a little bit better, I got out of the house with the Ricoh Gr IV and a film camera. Spoiler: the film camera did not leave my backpack. I went to a busy area, which is something that I normally do. Walking up and down the streets photographing interesting subjects, human in general, but this time, I felt in my guts that people were not part of the pictures (pun intended).
I spent a lot of time thinking about why my instinct decided to choose a different path for that particular photography walk. I read somewhere that when your mind is busy and overwhelmed, you tend to avoid photographing subjects. That’s because people introduce narrative; a relationship first with the scene, then with the photographer and then with the viewer. I guess my body was like: you’ve had enough sh*t going around you, let’s just relax.
And that’s what happened. I decided to give myself a task: to photograph the trace of human presence. If you follow my journey as a street photographer you know how much I love empty places, random objects abandoned on the road, etc. My plan was not to show these images to anyone, just an exercise for myself. Well, I failed that task, and now you are witnessing the result.
I thought that maybe out there, other people are feeling something similar to me, a rush of emotions difficult to name. I’m not a person that likes to stay still, while waiting for something magical to happen and solve my inner turmoil. My advice if you are experiencing something similar is to just go out and shoot; leave at home your criticism, pack a camera that you like or something that you are not using often and just do it.
You can pick a task to be more consistent and to give yourself a structure in your walk. No time is wasted, every minute spent outside is making you a better photographer, just from putting yourself in a position to observe life around you. I actually liked this walk a lot. I did not expect anything, and at the end, I have some images that I’m happy with.
I often do the same. I’ve got rolls of undeveloped and unshared film. Hundreds if not thousands of digital shots that are just for me as a way to just be in a moment, get out and do the dang thing for yourself. The state of the world at the moment makes it even more important to do that and not mire in the muck of the everyday and enjoy what we have while we have it, even when that’s a hard thing to do.
Lovely post and images, shot 5
I particularly love. I do this often, just get out and shoot. More often than not I don’t do anything with the results but the act of pressing the shutter is enough.