Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
(With apologies to the late, great David Bowie.)
I just spent a few hours updating my website, after a year or so of neglect. Granted, I do a monthly blog post, so I haven’t been completely absent here. But I did kinda/sorta forget to update my online portfolios and shop over the past year.
The idea of being super organized about this aspect of photography has long eluded me, for one reason or another. Mostly, I like photography to feel fun, and building an elaborate filing and updating system does not, in this instance, feel fun. So I rely on Instagram posts and a somewhat inconsistent tagging system in Adobe Lightroom to help me keep things somewhat organized, but it’s far from perfect.
Earlier this year, when I sat down to update my portfolios and shop with last year’s work, I hit a wall. I could not focus on 12 months of photos, and I was struggling to keep my portfolio categories straight. So I worked with Olivia Spring, who I met through my Expressions Community program, and she was a huge help (if you are interested in building a website, I highly recommend Olivia and I am happy to put you in touch with her!).
I’ve also been struggling with the recent shift in my work over the past year, as I’ve begun to incorporate elements of motion, rather than just straight photography (ironically, I had been practicing almost exclusively straight photography!). I still do that kind of “static” work–and enjoy it–but I’ve really taken to this idea of movement and, more broadly, abstract work.
OK, so maybe “struggling” is a bit strong, because I love what I am doing and learning. But it’s hard sometimes to make the connections between these new approaches and my former style. Again, it’s not an either-or for me, which is maybe what makes it hard.
Mostly, the new approaches allow me to add a different level of creativity to my work, helping me to translate more of the feelings I have while out shooting. I try to infuse all of my work with the feelings I have when I click the shutter, but abstract approaches deepen that (I think, so far, at least!).
And a lot of the motion and abstract work I’m doing feels a bit chaotic to me, which I think reflects a lot of what we are experiencing right now. Politics, the economy, and AI all make me feel like what was once up is now down, and what was once black is now white. We are in an era of blurred lines and where nothing is what it seems–or, at least, what it used to be. Taking an abstract approach–grounded in movement or motion–to my work just makes a lot of sense to me right now.
Sometimes I am capturing people as they move about their day or night here in Provincetown, or boats moving through the harbor. Other times I’m imposing motion–via my camera–on objects that are fixed. The result, I think and hope, is a sense of uncertainty that encourages us to pause and really look at–and sometimes question–what we are seeing.
As always, here are a few of my latest photos. There is no real theme here, as the snow and a trip to Puerto Rico conspired to limit my time shooting in Provincetown. Some of these incorporate this new abstract approach (and some are just more of the copious snow we’ve had this Winter!).
Be well!
