From my bed
Hi guys! It's been a while! I thought it was time for a bit of an update. And I have been thinking this for a few months now. Hope you don't mind that it took a while...
Anyway. I managed to finish my first year of photography school!! Who would have thought?
The second part was much harder than the first half. It was winter and I wasn't feeling very creative. The assignments didn't feel like my cup of tea. I just wanted to stay in bed and get it over with.
Deadlines were coming closer and closer and I finished my year with my camera in a BDSM dungeon with a mistress and a client. Those photos are a bit too much to post on my blog... but the feedback I got was "You got really close to the action, I see!".
It wouldn't be very nice to just tell you about projects and not show you anything, so let me show you some of my other photos that were part of larger series, that I haven't posted yet:
I went back to the place where I grew up to make a series about time that seems to be standing still. I stayed with my best friend for a whole day and took a lot of photos of her family and what they would do all day. And when the kids were at school, it was time to catch up and explore the boring part of the town. So much old stuff is there laying around when you just pay attention!
I went to Paris to visit a Vivian Maier exposition and took some shots on the street that I would normally not take when on a trip...
I got inspired by the #metoo activity going on in the Netherlands and decided to make small series called "Piece of meat", using blurry polaroids of female body parts to represent that fleeting and low-quality sexual satisfaction one must feel when sexually harassing someone.
Many of our assignments are some sort of follow-up on previous ones. Just like Self-portrait 2 should be built on the first self-portrait we made. There are also many variants of "Street" assignments. The last time I showed crime in my own street. Now it was time to show other activities in a street nearby. So I went to the Albert Cuyp Market and focussed on the huge amount of street food that is eaten there.
I won't bore you with some of the other photos that I took. The rest doesn't stick well to the blog. One project was presented in VR and one other was with paint over a photo. And to be honest, they are not my most impressive works.
So what is next? I considered quitting school after 1 year. My energy was super low and I was not enjoying myself. I was hungry to experiment, but the vast amount of assignments didn't leave much time to try new stuff and fail (hard) at it.
The risk of quitting temporarily is that it will easily turn into quitting completely. And since I didn't want that yet, I decided to continue. Maybe take it a bit slower and not force myself as much.
This year we will have to figure out how we want to specialize. I am leaning towards #autonomous photography. That way I will be able to keep experimenting and explore the world of mixed media (yup... it's happening). The first half I will do another project in VR, and will play around with cameraless photography techniques. My house became a massive laboratory...LOL
To be continued!!
Always great to see your name pop up in my feed :)
Better to take a break, than to break.
I like the casual closeness between these two.
I'll try to surprise you a little more often ;)
the development in your photography is clearly visible.
what is autonomous photography?
Everyone has a different definition of that. But to me it is about freedom, initiating my own (art-)projects and developing my own unique style. I think that I am not cut out for commercial photography.
Interesting that you see my development!
yah commercial is well most mainstream way to earn a living form your photography. but yes you need to be a specific person to do it and enjoy it :)
i was doing commercial work just enough to make excuses to buy new equipment. and most of it was something i found fun. and i catch myself refusing good amount of work just because i don't feel like it and it will just make me feel that photography is just work. and lucky enough that at the moment i can do that.
experimenting is fun, i just find that for me it is sometimes hard to get it going. a lot of ideas that are on a "will try that" shelf for some time.
I can relate to the experimentation-hesitation. Not sure what causes it...
Nice :)) congrats on surviving :p
Merci... living on the edge?!
Cool projects here. :) Look forward to seeing your experiments in mixed media and cameraless photography techniques!
Me too! I notice that I am a bit nervous to get started... Photos you can easily just throw away when you made a mistake. With cameraless or mixed media, you can ruin a physical product! But I will get there :)
That's true. One has to be careful and fearless at the same time for those, but I believe you can do it!💪
Don't quit, but don't take it way to seriously either. I would love to se more photos of that 1950's black car, it fits so well in black and white.
Thanks... I needed that! In a school where everyone is extremely serious about their photography, you do get sucked into that mindset. I started this journey because of the fun of it and told my teacher for this year that my main focus will be to find the joy of photography again.
Dunno if that 50s car is still there.. will check next time I'm in the area ;)
Do you know Casey Neistat, that huge Youtube creator? I don't follow him, but in one of the few videos of him I saw he said something that struck me. He said: "Perfect is the enemy of good enough."
Yay, you did it! Congrats. I have enjoyed the art you have shown us as your were learning and developing your style. I am glad you are going to continue! I look forward to seeing more development and your unique view in your photos.