So I started a Photo-a-Day project…
…and I thought it would be a worthwhile effort to share my work and my thoughts about the project here on Medium. Now I know what you’re thinking:
Why did you make the pictures so small? I can’t click them. I can’t see them!
Well, fortunately, you’re in luck! You can follow along on Instagram and catch each daily photo as I publish them, and if you really want to see them bigger, I’m also pushing these Instagram posts to a separate Tumblr (thank you, IFTTT). Finally, there’s plenty more photos I’ve made both before and during this project to see on my website.
If you end up visiting any of those other mediums, or if you just stop here on this one, I am eternally grateful for your attention. Hope you enjoy!
End shameless plug.
I do actually have a reason for that question I thought you were thinking up there:
The Photo-a-Day project is challenging
In fact, this Photo-a-Day project is so challenging that I sometimes find myself forgetting what my last post was because my focus is always on the next post.
Perhaps this thinking is a symptom of my motivation to complete the project (to note publicly: I have attempted a project of this kind before and failed). Maybe it’s part of my conditioning as an always-on, always-refreshing Millennial, striving to live-in and document “the moment.” It’s probably both.
But actually, I think there’s something to be said for the demanding nature of this project. Yes, the task is simple: make a picture, share it, repeat every day. Yet considering the continual advancements in mobile photography driven by countless hardware manufacturers and software developers, projects like these can be so much easier, or possibly even automated to the point where the human element is stripped from the experience. I also find watching my Instagram feed to be fairly indicative of social media behavior enhanced by technology. Really think about it: How many Instagram accounts do you follow that post frequently? Is it almost too frequently? What are the subjects of their most recent posts? Have you seen those subjects before? Do you notice users (oh, and don’t forget brands) that have their publishing schedule down to a science?
I have nothing against developing and using a workflow (I’m constantly tweaking my own), but its those types of questions that make me step back and really think about what I’m actually doing when making and sharing my pictures. As you can imagine, going down that path always leads to even more questions. Some are technical like debating whether to change your equipment or editing tools, some are abstract like determining and honing an aesthetic, and some are just grasping at straws: “What do I do now?” One question, though, from those streams of consciousness that I do think about often is:
Am I compromising my work and / or my story for what’s easy?
Unfortunately, I think my answer to that question is sometimes yes…
And that’s exactly why I’m here on Medium: to reflect, to shape, and to keep questioning
The main purpose of this project is, as you can expect, to practice the craft of making pictures. But the “lather, rinse, repeat” strategy isn’t enough.
As any photographer these days would tell you, photography is storytelling, and frankly, I’m having a harder time finding a meaningful story in that collage above than I’d like to have. Maybe I’m too close to my own story to see it, but seeing those photos spread out on a single page rather than trapped in an infinite Insta-scroll make it extremely clear that there’s more for me to work with out there. And if my story needs work, my work needs work.
On account of it already being March, I won’t be able to shape, or even find that story in February’s photos (which you can expect to see soon!). Until next time!
