Gleaning

This time of year . . . when the light leaves early.

I think we’ve confused having access to inspiration with actually being inspired. We can see more beautiful things in ten minutes than most people could’ve encountered in a year not that long ago. Which is extraordinary. It’s also a little exhausting. At some point you stop looking closely because there’s always another image waiting underneath the one you’re looking at. —Colin King

There’s a difference that is especially evident when I walk with my camera in hand between what catches my eye and what truly holds my attention. These are the pictures I love to live with. I print and frame them, display them in my home on my walls, in my heart, like a giant mood board that makes me feel joy.

Keep Photographing

As long as a body of photographs remains open, almost any uncertainty can be answered in the same way: keep photographing. 
Another photograph might solve it. Another month might make the direction clearer. 
—Martin Kaninsky

No Rushing Allowed

The film scans arrive and they are a mix of the end of summer and early fall. I’ve been thinking a good bit about the role of photography in my life. The world feels like it’s changing at warp speed and keeping up is something I’ve stopped trying to do. Instead, I keep coming back to things that are both simple and meaningful. These film photos are like an antidote for weariness. The curve of a watermelon, the light falling on the caravan, the silence between the seasons. The design of a photograph isn’t just visual—it’s experiential.  We remember the feeling. 

Suddenly There in Front of Me

What if I stood in a field of cosmos, swaying in the wind, on a clear blue fall day? A field of flowers with enough depth to keep revealing itself. More things for the eye to discover. More subtle shifts in color. A pink flower on a screen is one thing, but a field of pink flowers spread across 30 feet is quite another. So there was a lot of looking. More detail gave me permission to be quieter and more relaxed in my photography. And, unexpectedly, more room for subtlety.