It's been a while since I wrote! Looking back at 2015, I am overwhelmed with gratitude, and more than a little bit exhausted. It was a year filled with activity, new friends, new adventures. I joined groups that mean a great deal to me. I was invited by two different places to show multiple works; one was a solo show. I took part in more group exhibitions than I could keep track of; I even won a small award in one of them (Round Rock Arts' Imagine show). I managed to get a piece shown a little bit further afield, in Johnson City, and given that was my goal for the year, I will mark it down as a win. To top all of that off, I sold a couple of prints, learned large format photography, and how to make wet plate tintypes. Phew.
What I take away from those incredible 12 months, besides a sense of astonishment, is a greater knowledge of what works for me personally as a photographer, and what does not. The endless cycle of art calls, unfortunately, is a source of frustration for me, and it is my intention to let that side of things be for a while. If I have goals for the year to come, they are more geared toward printing up a body of work than getting prints up on walls. This is, of course, subject to change, like anything in life, depending on opportunities that may or may not arise.
Christmas brought me a big, BIG new toy in the form of a 7x17 Korona Banquet View Camera. I am thick into experimenting with paper negatives and contact prints already, both with it and with last Christmas' Crown Graphic. Large format allows me to enjoy photography beyond my usual scope; it lets me look at something besides the street. I am looking forward to exploring a new direction with it in the months to come.
But first - news - something that is such a great honor to me I hardly know how to speak about it - I have been named the Featured Artist for the month of January by the Film Shooters Collective! The Collective is something I believe in wholeheartedly; if you haven't already, I invite you to take a look at the website and follow along in our endeavors to promote film photography. Also, if you would like to read the interview, you can find it here
On that note, I am excited to see what this new year will hold. Wishing all of you a very fruitful, creative, beautiful collection of months!