year 2016, week 30.
Monday.
Third week into this exercise of the mind and I am already feeling the benefits. At the same time I am feeling the aches and pains of daily exercise.
Last week ended with me going camping on Friday. I was actually in the woods and had found a rare spot of service when I realized I didn’t publish. The weekend was great. Family time + nature is always a great combination. Restorative, exhausting, and pleasurable all at the same time.
I feel I talked a lot about time. Not enough, there is still words to be written about it. But enough for a frame work for my next topic I hope to elaborate on this week which is educating your audience. This perhaps it the thing I strive most for and often feel like a total failure.
The subject matter of my photography and questions I hope raise within the audience is often complex. Take my “We Are Neighbors” project for example. I hope that my audience walks away with questions about what their neighborhood means to them and what could be improved in the infrastructure to allow for more neighborly interactions. But all of this has to come from a photograph or, if I am luck to hold their attention, a series of photographs. I need to give the viewer enough information so they know the point of the photograph and at the same time not push my opinion on them. In this work my opinion doesn't matter. It is their opinion of the place they call home and the opinion of their neighbors that matters. Looking back I think I did a fair job at that. But that is through my filtered and biased eye. I think before I take it to the next level I need to sit down with some people that are not connected to the work and see what their opinions are.
I do have plans to take it to another level. I am working with a local poet to create a book that explores the neighborhood and it’s vibes more. But I need to make sure the work educates them before it sets them to wander through the pages.
Tuesday.
Is it me or does time often speed up during the middle of the week. Monday’s drag by, then Tuesday and Wednesday blur together. And before you know it Thursday is here and tomorrow is Friday.
Anyway, where was I yesterday? Oh yeah. Educating your audience. An alternative to educating your audience would be to only market your work to people already knowledgeable in the work or are like minded. But as easy as that is, I feel that ones art/life work has so much more potential.
The internet has given us access to a vast array of points of view. So why limit your outlook on life and only follow, retweet, or share ideas that align with you? Comfort. Complacency. Fuck that. People need to feel the uneasiness of the unknown. The new.
But where is the line between forcing someone to accept your opinions and having them really take your opinions into to consideration as valid? I don’t want everyone to like my work. I don’t want everyone to pat me on the back. If they do then I am doing it wrong and should just quit. Warning sign #8.
Wednesday.
To have their soul slither out of their eye balls and envelope my photograph. That is my plan. That’s not asking too much. Right?
Give me 30 seconds and look at the photograph. Think about it daily for the next 5 years. Let it make you smile, cry, question your greater good. Whatever it is that you need to get through the day.
Thursday.
It has been too long since I had my camera in my hands. There is a certain feeling I get while making photographs with it that my iPhone just cant replicate. Work, home, family, repeat. I’ve gotta break the cycle.
The cure for writers block is to write. Something, anything. Same goes for photographers block, take pictures. Something, anything.
Spending too much time in my head and in these words can be a bad thing. It is turning into a bad thing. Maybe one night a week I need to just head out after dinner and make some photographs. Tuesdays are for skateboarding (exercise), maybe Thursdays will be for my camera.
I need to find a space that I can go hang and create with other people. I often think of how far my work could be if I only applied myself to it regularly and with a reckless abandon. Now that I am living in a different part of town it feels harder to find the time. I spend more time commuting to and from work than I do making photographs. That feels odd.
The fall is right around the corner and I always get a serious itch around that time. I think it is the chill in the air. Maybe that will give me the kick in the balls that I need.
Friday.
I didn’t take any photographs last night. My camera is still in the same spot. I thought I would just put that out there right away. To be honest about it all.
There is a little drama in Albuquerque right now about the future of Central Avenue. It is a portion of the infamous Route 66. There are plans for configuring the road to have dedicated bus lanes run down the middle.
I guess I see it as inevitable change and I would rather see Central Avenue be turned into something meant for mass transit, bikes and pedestrians. It was built out as a corridor for Albuquerque’s first suburbs. Very automobile-centric in design. Even the subdivisions that flank it were designed for people with cars that would commute to and from the city.
Thus how Albuquerque sprawl began and continues. A series of suburbs that we call a cohesive city.
Should relics of the past really hold us back from progress? Is the proposed plan really progress? If you are of the camp that wants Route 66 to once again glisten in a neon glow the answer is no. But if you are of the camp that realizes that our current plan of ‘build the houses out on the mesa and let them commute to work’ is not sustainable then the answer is yes.
I want my city to move forward. I want it to be beautiful and unique. I also don’t want to spend almost 2 hours of my day commuting. Would this plan change my life? Possibly. Maybe. I hope to find out.
There is a new meditation center by my work in a building that was empty for years. Maybe I should go ask myself some these questions over there.
