The Moments Between the Shots
For every picture that gets posted here or on Instagram, Threads, Pixieset, 500px, Facebook, etc. there are a multitude more that don’t. Some aren’t posted because they’re test shots, sampling the environments that I’m in, re-learning the cobbles and signs of a place I’ve been before or incorporating new ones. They may be blurred, hastily shot while walking by so as to not disrupt the people around me.
More often than not, you’re subject to my whims and fancy, my interpretation of the world around, accompanied by my stories and narratives. It’s a means to an end, really, but there’s also much that can be said for what is left behind.
The moments I appreciate about cities like København, Dublin, Geneva, and others are in the seams and cracks that exist beyond the spit and polish of castles and the sheen of stores lining the main thoroughfares. There’s a certain genteel ugliness to any city that is indicative of its state and, in my mind, worthy of capture.
The interplay of seasons, of light and dark, concrete and glass, asphalt and wire, all feeds into the stories we tell. Humanity is just a cake-topper, so to speak, in these moments. Beauty is found in ugliness just as much as anything else.
You’ll also note that I don’t typically capture people. This is as much a stylistic choice as it is a discomfort from stepping on their privacy and stories. There are protections, obviously, around taking pictures in public places. But, in a way, there’s also a respect that I have for a person’s volition in stepping into my stories, my framing, my narratives that I want to respect as sacred.
The Christmas markets in København, for example, have a collision of all sorts of people from all different countries. It’s a menagerie of language, of colour, gender, creed, religion, nationality. It’s a beautiful mosaic that absolutely must be experienced for all of its clamour and noise. The smells, the sounds, the excitement that surrounds the unveiling of these new experiences for tourists and children alike is something to be experienced, even from the hardest of hearts.
When it’s all said and done, I’m a tour guide of sorts. I’m going to draw you from cracks in the pavements, to soaring buildings above; from Christmas markets in København squares to whimsical giraffes in Tivoli Gardens. In each case, many of these pictures wouldn’t be seen at first blush because…they never fit the stories I wanted or was inspired to tell.
But, some of the learning I’ve incorporated over this past year of being in community with you all is that for every picture I take, every exposition of humanity’s wild and wooly personality, there’s always more to dive into, more to be said, more backroads and side streets to take.
Wrapping up a year where we’ve grown together, I’m excited to be able to teach more, talk more, listen more, do…more with the community we’ve set up. Stay tuned because I think there’s ways that we can do this together even from thousands of miles apart. In the meantime, keep waking up, kicking ass, being kind, and repeating it daily.
May it ever be so.
