Slowing down
When something is your passion, time seems to go so fast that you have time for nothing. You have your job, perhaps a family, and then somewhere you also make time for your passion. Assuming your job facilitates your passion rather than being it. I think that is the case for most people. In my case my commercial photography facilitates the street photography. It is a nuance, but an important one.
You should make your resolutions after January, because most of them do not survive the first three weeks of the year. Buying no more lenses or cameras is one of those. But then, what are you supposed to do with your end of year bonus. It seemed a good plan to use this second Focus of the year to look ahead together.
Photography is a kind of express train with a lot of intermediate stops. That sounds like a contradiction, but think about it. Sometimes there is barely time to get out and enjoy the view. Luckily we still have the photos (pun intended). Alongside publishing my book for Photofacts and the various street photography workshops I was able to give, last year I took part in a number of group exhibitions. I was also able to spend the summer holiday with my fantastic and patient family in photogenic New York, which has absolutely added new dimensions to my own view of photography.
Very fine things happen when you focus on what makes you happy. In the coming year that focus goes into a funnel. That sounds like a pleonasm, but in this case it is not. For me last year was about street photography in the very broadest sense of the word, and at breakneck speed. The coming year is about slowing down. About focusing on those things within street photography that really make me happy. In my case that is giving workshops and talks, and refining those further.
Where do you want to be in five years? I would most like to be talking a great deal about street photography, as a profession. That seems fantastic to me, and the plans are already taking shape in my head. 2024 is the second step in my five year plan. I am curious: how is that for YOU? What are your dreams? Where would you most like to be in a few years? How big is the part photography plays in your life then? Too often I hear someone say they would most like to do “something with photography”, and too often there are reasons to put it on ice after all. This is your year.
Anything you give attention to grows. Anything you keep giving attention to keeps growing. Sounds simple, and it is. Growing in photography only works if you keep focusing on the things you really enjoy. A step back. I made my first photo with a knowledge of ISO, aperture and shutter speed in 2021. That is not all that long ago, no. But since then I have given photography attention every day. It is an integral part of my day, whether that is talking about it, pressing a button, or writing about it. I feel naked if I have no camera with me and see things I would have liked to photograph. I have been trying for ages to make more videos for Instagram, but cannot find the time between the photographing.
The coming year should be dedicated to slowing down. To making room and guarding that room for long city walks. For good, in-depth conversations about projects, ideas and dreams. Think about it yourself: what do you really want to do in 2024, photography-wise? Have you been meaning to visit Haute Photographie (Rotterdam, 4 to 7 February) for years and never got round to it? Have you been wanting to take that one workshop for ages, but never find the time? Have you resolved a hundred times to look into a new camera, but cannot manage to choose? Slow down for once. Hit the brake. Book that workshop, plan that trip. Put it in your diary and it is fixed. Then the rest of the year can embrace the things you really want, without smothering them.
Someone once said to me: “You have to plan your plans.” It is true. Stop thinking for a moment about the work that swallows all your time and the family that lovingly swallows your attention, and take a quarter of an hour to stand still. Pen and paper, and write down three things you want to do in photography this year, whatever else happens. The first things that come to mind. Pick a date for those things and make sure it is a realistic date. Plan that quarter of an hour; it will give you focus.
People who work with film have known it for ages. If you think about things a little longer, the result is better. The result is then closer to what you had in mind. Slowing down leads to very fine things. Perhaps I should shoot film a bit more often as well.
This article first appeared in Focus Magazine (the best photography magazine in the Netherlands), for which I wrote a column in every issue in 2023 and 2024.