Sleep hasn’t come easy in the last few weeks. Blame it on caffeine, nerves, transition... I blame it on dreaming. Our trek is a dream that has painted my mind in moments in and outside of consciousness, especially in those hours closest to sleeping.
As of late I find myself jolted and alert during tender hours of darkness. Not disturbed but with compulsion to grab a camera and start walking.
That’s how it tends to go on those days I find a good shot-- something stirs inside, I grab my camera and I start walking.
It’s Saturday morning in Winston-Salem. I’m wrapped in a throw on the front porch of our production headquarters quietly reflecting and anticipating my artistic approach. As a photographer this reflection is perhaps the most essential. It’s the simple questions after shooting: what did I do right? why didn’t that turn out the way I had hoped? is the issue a matter of knowing my tool or simply adjusting my shooting style?
On the Camino we have 40 days to shoot, adjust, and perfect our workflow… but we’ll never have the same moment twice. Though I do not expect to want for content, I do expect those golden moments that will produce the richest images will happen when least expected (and never happen the same way). For this reason, much anticipation is necessary. I think I understand this within my being even more than in my conscious. I think it’s become more important than sleep. From my experience, once the basics of imaging become second nature, finding the shot is a visceral response. It can’t quite be explained. I know and I shoot. Some might call this the Decisive Moment.
Because this is my response to the camera, I anticipate the trek will be a season of heightened visual awareness, of little speaking and more moving, pointing, squinting to assess light. Preparation has lead me to a more natural state-- watching instead of speaking, grappling with light and motion. Some may call this disengaged... for a photographer that couldn’t be further from the truth.
So instead of finding more words to say I have few words... let me show you a few images from recent moments of walking and shooting... quiet discoveries, moments precious to the wanderer.
