2023 Year in Review
Queue the fun little 12 month recap. Last year I shot some of my favorite artists in concert, saw the aurora borealis, adopted a cat, messed around with new cameras and lenses, bowled a 177 game, got drunk and tanked my chess rating, and much more! Below are some of my favorite photographs that I created last year.
I was able to shoot some of the biggest shows of my career (do I call it that?). Starting from the top they were Bilmuri at the Turner Hall Ballroom, Ben Quad at the High Noon Saloon, and Honey Harper at the Cactus Club. All three of these artists have released albums that I adore and the fact that I was able to not only photograph them but talk to and hang out with the people behind the music was an awesome opportunity.
Photographing the aurora borealis has been on my bucket list for some time and this April it became a reality. I witnessed the lights as a kid when my parents woke me up in the middle of the night to go see the colorful sky. This time around there were no spectacular reds or greens to be seen, but watching the pillars of opaque white light dancing around the sky was beautiful in its own way, and in some ways more entrancing. After snapping a few shots at Tenney Park in Madison I decided it was time to find darker skies and drive out to Indian Lake Park, hoping that the lights would still be visible when I got there. Luck was on my side and the spectacle did not disappoint. When I arrived close to midnight there were dozens of other photographers and stargazers admiring the show.
April was a great month for me as I also adopted a cat! I was contacted about a sweet foster cat from Tennessee who wound up here with Underdog Pet Rescue. After meeting her I felt that she was a perfect fit and got the adoption process rolling. Once I got her home she warmed up very quickly and has been a wonderful model and even better companion. (Adopting through Underdog Pet Rescue was a great experience, highly recommend adopting through them / using their vet services / supporting what they do.)
Vanessa let me take her picture more. She’s the best and I love her.
I happened to wander into Mickey’s Tavern on the night of a folk/country show intending to stay for a drink and a crossword. After seeing the pedal steel set up in the corner I decided to stick around. Little did I know, that would turn into seeing many more Spine Stealers gigs, buying-losing-and buying again a Chris Acker record, and obsessively listening to Friend Dog’s new album. I was somehow completely in the dark when it came to Madison’s folk music scene and I’m so glad to have found this portion of it.
My great friend Bill started running Super Smash Brothers: Melee tournaments in the basement of The Atwood Bar and it’s grown into something special. Every month players come out and compete, myself included, and it’s been great meeting other people with the same love for the game.
Old friends, new music, another year in the books. I think it’d be fair to say that all of my close musician friends have grown so much as artists recently, are continuing to get better and gain very well deserved attention. So proud of everyone and grateful to be along for the ride.
Somewhat on a whim I purchased the Canon 40mm “pancake” lens and the rather trendy 1/4 Tiffen Pro-Mist filter to live on it. Much to my surprise it’s been hard to take off my camera. I’ve somewhat fallen for the 40mm focal length and enjoy the weight/size savings of such a small lens. This set up has made it so much more enjoyable to grab my camera and walk around shooting.
And here we are, the end of the bunch. Some of my favorite photos of the year taken with a $15 plastic Holga lens. It claims to be f/8 but shoots like f/22, has horrendous chromatic aberration, intense vignetting, and terrible sharpness, but I love the look of it. It feels wrong to put what some call “the worst lens ever made” on what can be considered a professional camera body. Perhaps the most important lesson that I’ve learned this year in photography is that gear is so much less important than I previously believed. Sure, a new $5000 set up would open some creative doors or increase the number of “usable” images from a shoot. But a great image can be captured with any camera, and there’s even something to be said for the imperfections in more attainable equipment. Omitted from this recap are photos taken with my Instax SQ6 as I don’t have a film scanner yet. That camera is a wonderful example of imperfections working in favor of the end results.
With that, i’ll add a few quotes from a book that I re-read this year. My dad gifted me On Being a Photographer: David Hurn in conversation with Bill Jay almost 10 years ago on my 19th birthday. Here are some passages that stuck with me.
“The only factually correct aspect of photography is that it shows what something looked like — under a very particular set of circumstances. But that is not the same as the underlying truth of the event or situation. As to objectivity, it does not exist. In my own photography I have two fundamental controls: where I stand and when I press the button. Both are subjective choices so the end result, the picture, is bound to be equally subjective.”
“All photographs, even the most prosaic records of things, are subjective. They are made as a result of various decisions arising out of the mind of an individual. So inevitably that self will intrude on the picture-making process. It would be impossible to keep it out. But it is not the primary aim of the images. A unique style, which is what we are talking about, is the by-product of visual exploration, not its goal. Personal vision comes only from not aiming at it. Over a long period of time and through many, many images, the self re-emerges with even greater strength than if it were the end-product. Ironically, by starting with self, it is missed; ignore it, and it becomes evident.”
“There is a lot of luck in capturing a significant picture, but the good photographers cut down the waste and make the shot far more likely. When I am looking for pictures I instinctively sense situations that might contain good shots. I then latch on the the situation and start shooting. Sometimes that action will build up into a climax in about six to ten shots, and then drop away. At other times, the action will start to build up... but then stop at nothing. So you have to forget that scene and latch on to another pregnant situation. ”
“It gives me both an invisibility cloak and an excuse for intruding into other lives. “I’m a photographer” is an open-sesame to places and people I would otherwise avoid. In reality, of course, you soon discover by experience that if you are genuinely interested in what’s going on, then people become extremely friendly. One of the easiest ways to overcome shyness is to be a photographer.”
“The ultimate aim is an oscillation between self and subject with the images being a physical manifestation of this supercharged interface between the spirit and the world.”