From time to time, I look back at some photographs from a period in my life when I was so enamored with my environment and completely in tune with the finest of details. It all started when I was 19 years old. I had just moved to Sacramento and started experimenting with 35mm film. With the endless trial and error that came with shooting film (I’ll admit, I should’ve watched more tutorials..) and this new city waiting to be explored, there was something so pure about my passion for photography during that time that was beginning to truly bloom. My mind was completely consumed with nothing but photography.
I worked and lived in a quiet corner of Downtown and took classes at the city college on the outskirts of the city. On school days and nights I’d take the train back and forth, staring out the window in search for anything that caught my eye. On work days at the cafe down the street, I would oftentimes walk down new alleyways and different city blocks just to see something unfamiliar as I made my way to and from work. And on my off-days, I would venture a little further out into Midtown where I’d walk for what seemed to be entire days, with the occasional coffee/food break to keep me fueled and focused. When I think about it, I hardly ever took the same route twice. I remember finding Sacramento so interesting to photograph and as a result, I was going through rolls of film as if it was going out of style.
From early on, I was much more intrigued with black and white as opposed to color. Shooting in black and white allowed me to solely focus on slight changes of sunlight/shadows, textures, and most importantly: composition. My trusty Canon AE-1, 50mm lens and a roll of either HP5+ or Tri-X (when they were only like $4 a roll..ugh) proved to be very efficient for me. With this ideal setup, I was completely in tune with the details of life around me; it seemed like I’d press down on the shutter at just about anything..
My archive began to grow very quickly and in early 2017, I created my first zine, 13. From the very first moment I picked up those 30 copies from a local printer (RIP Floppy’s), I just knew that I need to continue working on projects and get them printed into books, zines, etc.
Fast forward to Spring of 2018: my second zine STUDIES came to life. I remember being in a creative rut a few months prior. I was still making a lot of photographs but I didn’t have much of a path that I was following. There was no project that I was specifically working on and there wasn’t a list that I was checking off. STUDIES just felt like the perfect excuse to let these “other” photographs of mine live together. I was always scanning and studying my surroundings to see what had changed on a new day with different light; making photographs for the sake of making photographs. This type of work and concentration began to train my eye and mind like no other.
In my opinion, STUDIES laid out the foundation for how and what I wanted to photograph since it included work that I was interested in making..
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Let’s face it: creative ruts are inevitable. Places can AND will get boring at times. Certain light and seasons can be uninspiring. But as simple as it seems, the best remedy is to just keep making and thinking about making photographs..
And never stop studying the world around you. There is always something to find.
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So good! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks. I'm in a terrible rut right now so this was timely.