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| “Silly” day 16 |
When we started the May creative
challenge, I don’t know whether Kimberly or I had any idea of where
the project, and the process, would really take us. Over the last
several months, Kimberly and I have participated in a number of these
challenges: Inktober last October, a drawing challenge in January, a
watercolor challenge in February and a storybook challenge in March.
I suppose each one of these has given each of us some insight into
our process as well as our artistic prowess. It’s also very fun to
see what the other will do. In many ways, this challenge was just a
continuation of all the challenges we’ve been doing together since
last October. However, I felt like this one was slightly different.
This one was somehow different, I think
because of the nature of the medium. Being a photo project was one
thing. I think that photographs represent life in a very realistic
way. We also chose to use our phones as the tool for this project.
All of the photos I took during the challenge were made with and
edited with the phone. I did make a few other edits at least to a
handful of photos with Photoshop. I suppose that could be considered
cheating. The photos I tinkered with in Photoshop I felt really
deserved the second set of edits.
What I found, more than anything else,
was that this particular project was a stunning insight into my daily
life. I took most of these photos in and around my home. The photos
that were not taken at home, I took around my neighborhood. Sometimes
I took walks into town to get certain images: the bulk food store,
the music shop, the top of the parking garage downtown. These are
places that I see often, these are places I go.
I do have a
certain aesthetic that I think translated well to these images. They
are all square, some have vignetting and most have that muted color
that I know so well from all the years I played with toy
cameras.
This challenge, like all of them, was a great daily
exercise in practice. Yes, I had to make these photos daily. But what
creative challenges are really about for me, is the way I think about
them. I got consumed with this, like I have with the rest. I love to
think about what I’m going to do, I love going out and doing it, and
I love reflecting on what I’ve done.
I think everyone should do monthly
creative challenges if for no other reason that to see if they make
you think differently. Please see the whole project live in Issuu: https://issuu.com/blog-site/docs/may_photobook