It's Been a While

It’s been almost a month since I’ve published anything—the longest period since I started this newsletter a year and a half ago. I've been slammed with client work, which I am grateful for, but my personal projects have suffered as a result.

I've also struggled a bit with my motivation to keep this newsletter going. Originally, I was attracted to Substack as a platform because it offered a way to share my work without the algorithms and metrics of social media. However, when I log into my account, I can’t help but see my open rate, comments, likes, and subscriber count. I hate to admit it, but this kind of feedback affects what I create, no matter how hard I try to ignore it. I've questioned whether some of what I’ve shared through this newsletter was work I was truly happy with or work that I thought would “do well.” That bugs the hell out of me, and it's the exact reason I stopped posting on social media platforms.

On one hand, a person could just create for the joy of creating and never share what they have made. This makes a lot of sense to me because I love the process, and for a long time, I didn’t have a way to share what I was making. On the other hand, it seems like we are wired to share, and it feels good to send your creations out into the world. I do want other people to see what I have made, and I want to see what they have made, but I don’t need the reactions to be analyzed, graphed, and ranked.

Some of my favorite photos are the ones that no one seems to care about, and the ones that I think could be better are the ones that seem to get the most external love. I don’t want this information, but knowing it just might be the price of admission for having the ability to send your work around the world with the click of a button. I have heard one of my favorite musicians say time and time again that he creates only for himself. He has to love it, and if other people do as well, that’s great—but if they don’t, it doesn’t change what he does. I hope to get there someday.

These photos are from a road trip I took with my good friend Martin a few weeks ago. We traveled to North Dakota (I was just there for work!) to look for interesting landscapes and abandoned structures. I have four more posts planned with the rest of what I shot during the trip.

Thanks for looking!