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Dear friend,
\\n2020 was a hell of a year. My deep optimism:
\\n2021 will be a great year for your photography.\\n
Many reasons to be optimistic. Looks like we have produced a COVID vaccine much quicker than expected. I already know 3 people personally who have gotten the vaccine.
\\nI look at my photography, and have figured --
\\nEven though I prefer to travel and make photos, I have been able to make very interesting photos while NOT traveling, or being in other \'exotic\' places.\\n
A new realization:
\\nThe joy of shooting monochrome is that it opens up more photo opportunities for us.\\n
What I mean is this:
\\nBecause our lives have become more \'boring\' and more \'normal\' ... it is hard to find new visual stimuli or sources of things to photograph.\\n
But in monochrome... we can transform even the boring and normal things into interesting things to photograph.
\\nMonochrome is magic. I see a lot of normal \'boring\' mundane things, and when I look at it and hold up my Ricoh GR III in high contrast monochrome mode, it transforms the thing into something far more interesting. It is almost like using a blacklight on normal surfaces.
\\nWe take a common thing, and make it ultra-common (extraordinary) through photography.\\n
To use Silicon Valley talk, the notion of \'pivoting\' is good.
\\nToo often in photography we become trapped into a singular, reductive way to approach our photographic artwork. My optimistic thought:
\\n2021 can be a great chance for you to \'pivot\' your photography, and switch things up.\\n
For example, let us say that travel/street photography is your thing. But certainly your ability to travel in 2021 (with COVID) is greatly impacted. Thus, rather than bemoaning reality and complaining ... best for us to exploit our (\'bad\') situation to the maximum advantage. This means:
\\nGiven my poor circumstances ... how can I best transform these \'downsides\' to upsides in photography?\\n
For example, let us say you\'re stuck in quarantine at home, or just restricted in your small boring city or town. Perhaps use this to your advantage:
\\nIt takes more skill to photograph really boring things and to transform them into interesting photos.\\n
Treat this as the ultimate \'creative constraint\'.
\\nOr --
\\nIf you\'re stuck at home all day with your partner, kids, roommates, etc ... use this chance to start a \'quarantine\' photography project of your family and/or loved ones.\\n
Time with loved ones is the ultimate non-renewable resource. To use 2021 to focus on family/friend photography is great.
\\nThere are a few thing which bring me as much joy in life as photography. Simple things which have been incredibly fun for me:
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