ALI.
The day before I took those pictures I visited my dad. I came into the apartment and got greeted by a wave of smoke.
First thing I could think of where the walls that I painted freshly in white. I already saw them loose the white spark because of the smoke, but hey, it was his apartment so none of my business.
He was really happy to see me and it was a ritual back in the days to visit him every time I went to the gym because he lives exactly on this route. As we sat on the table I thought of how cool the light was, as it was very soft around 5pm. I wanted to be in the moment tho, so I let go of the creative process unfolding in my mind of taking photographs of him in his environment.
Somehow the next day I had these clear shots in my head I wanted to take, so I grabbed the Leica Q2, put it in my porter bag, hoped on the bike and with a clear vision I went back to his place.
Today he was not so happy tho, but I felt like it was truly him expressing how he felt as we sat again at the table. So the next thing I did was to take out the camera, take 1-2 shots, following him out into the garden to finish his smoke, take another 1-2 shots, went back inside, talked and with that 10 minutes passed, I had within 5 shots the ones I envisioned in my mind prior.
It happens a lot to me, I see something, I take pictures of it in my head, leave it sink for a while, go back with the camera and take the shot with zero effort.
I really told myself to just take photographs of everything around me, including the people.
As I go down the rabbit hole of photography, I feel really lost at some points of the day. Even tho I get complimented for my photographs, I don’t really feel like I’m anywhere.
I’ve also just started to take this a bit more seriously, but as you look up online all the known photographers in the scene, it really sets you back to scratch as you see what it really takes to be successful in this niche.
But I promised myself to keep going, no matter what, because I see this as the expression of myself and so it will be a life’s work - like a marathon and not a sprint.
