It's Personal.

making with meaning...

Note: No AI has ever been or ever will be used by myself anywhere anytime for any purpose!

It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten anything developed, since this past winter was very slow for photography for me…

I didn’t make much work and didn’t feel like picking up the camera…too deep into Booktok too lol (reading 94 books from November to April)

BUT - spring/summer/autumn are the seasons of action and with the frenzy in the garden, the photography bug came back. I got five rolls back from the lab this week, have 4 more in the queue, and 11 en route!

It is mostly of the garden…LOL

Travel has been restricted for me the past year, so my photography playground has been the backyard. And the frontyard. And whatever I can get to grow in the shady sideyards.

The Nikon FM2n continues to impress. Plus, I found an ebay seller parting with their GORGEOUS Series E collection - exactly what I wanted - 28, 35, 50, 100, 135, and 300mm! Mint +++++++

Before the garden, you might have found me questioning just how many photos can one possibly take of the same one acre plot?

The answer is A LOT actually.

Maybe not so much in the winter when things are still for 6 months, but spring-summer-fall witness daily changes that I now find fascinating to capture.

And I’m struggling to keep up!

There is a lot you can pack into a small backyard, and plant addicts will know what I mean when I say, there’s always space for one more…

Each raised bed or bag or in ground section seems to have it’s own little micro environment. Each area attracts it’s own little society of bees, butterflies, dragonflies, wasps, hummingbirds, other various bugs/beetles, frogs, grasshoppers, salamanders…etc.

So, it’s been really cool to use the 100mm or the 135mm (or even the 50/35) to get up close and isolate these mini plant domains.

I used to think, my goodness how boring!

But now that I’m in it, it’s different.

It’s personal.

I’ve grown these plants from seed, watched them sprout and develop their first leaves, up-potted them when they outgrew their space, transitioned them outside, fed them, watered them, pruned them, and squished destructive bugs that tried to eat them.

We feed them and then they feed us.

And not just physically either, mentally too.

I heard something recently that sounds like a “duh” moment, but it changed something in my brain…

We are the earth because we consume it. You know that phrase, “You are what you eat”? Like that. Theoretically then, we are the plants, the soil, the sun, the mountains, etc. They are a part of us as much as we are a part of them. And while that seems basic, it’s profound in a way that may make us appreciate them more, care for them more.

It’s a connection to our life sources that has been so, so incredibly broken in our systems and society today.

And it’s what makes me come back to capturing this subject again and again without getting bored. Things change everyday, every week, every season and it’s fascinating to literally watch the grass grow.

Too many of the photographs I’ve been more excited to make in the past haven’t held as much meaning as these. They are of places I’ve visited casually and breezed in and out of but didn’t stay long at all. It doesn’t hold the same power as something that I live in and spend months working with. Or made lasting memories with…

It’s kinda like the difference between me taking a photo of the Sagrada Familia versus one of the Charles River Esplanade at sunset in the summer with the sailboats out. I LIVED a full life once along that river...and it’s a very special place in my memory.

The Sagrada Familia may be more stunning but it’s emotional bank is empty to me. I went, saw it, and left. It’s not mine in any way (not that we own anything in this world), I have no connection to it really, other than being a tourist invading someone else’s local.

I’ve been more excited to photograph things far away, but have realized the ones that really mean something are right here at home. (family/friends included - except I don’t post those photos on the internet really)

The things that hold more meaning for us outside of photography hold much more meaning in photography.

The most powerful photographs/images to me are from the personal projects of photographers. Ones they are a part of, ones they’ve lived…Nan Goldin…for example. And it’s not really a “project”, or at least doesn’t start out that way inorganically. It’s their life as they are witnessing it, as they are observing, seeing, moving through it.

This is also where I find it more impactful knowing the story of the photographer behind the image or gallery or project. And why now if I shoot street photography, I want to be a part of whatever I’m shooting, an event, a festival, a fair - not just an outside observer, but a member taking part as well as photos.

The image is only the beginning. The story is really what I want.

I don’t separate the art from the artist - my take is that it cannot be done. Perhaps in a mind that rationalizes away the separation but in truth, no. Creation is an act that involes a part or whole of a person going into the work which would not exist otherwise. The art cannot be without the artist.

And I want to know the artist as much as the art.

Maybe even more.

Cheers,

~M