Crossroads
So.. Days of entropy… what is this all about? Yes, I was at a crossroads. Again. And it was not one where I’d meet the devil and get famous in exchange for selling my soul. By that time, the thought of getting famous turned my stomach. I longed for different things. An easy life, but filled with adventure. And romance, stability, freedom, and all that a free mind longs for.
It came different. I got burned again. The adventurous type in me was too strong! Or maybe it was the longing for a home. So there I stood again. What am I going to do? Where do I go from here? And then I realized, this was a question more profound than I actually thought. It was not about my love life. It was not about my work. It was not even about my photography…
Letting go
It was about letting go. Of course, I know all that. There’s a reason I study Buddhism. I know nothing lasts. Still, we are, yes I am, a human being. So I learned. Again. And started a journey of letting go in the most obvious way.
Fresh Eyes
I decided to give a project another chance. A project I tried before but never had the endurance to bring to an end. A 365 day, one photo-a-day project. With my own set of rules. I know I don’t always have cool stuff, or actually, anything to photograph during office days. Well, maybe I do, but that could get too personal for me for now. So. The rules:
- Post one photo a day for 365 days
- Do not seek attention with these photos (yes, it is something I crave, eternal fame)
- Black and white only
- Square format only
- Not the “normal” street, urbex, portrait photos.
Days of Entropy
So, of course, a project needs a name, right? I had to come up with a name that was cooler than just a “365-day photo challenge”
I came up with “Days of Entropy”
Entropy:
lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.
So I started shooting. Not daily. But way more regularly than I even know of myself. Try other stuff. Walk around without the “default” street view (which I don’t presume I have). Without any pretension. And yes. It opened my eyes. In more ways than I thought possible. There was no “gradual decline into disorder”, rather gaining clarity about how I want to define my photography. I photograph people. I make portraits of them. I am a street photographer. I try documenting stuff. In the end, it all boils down to one thing. I photograph life.
I photograph life
I found out that when I photograph, be it people, or street, or even a hint of documentary photography, what I actually do, is photograph life. There is no “street” or “portrait” or “sensual”, it is all life. Actually, it is my life.
My life
Yes indeed. It’s all my life I photograph. And the people that I meet on my way. Sometimes it’s more of a photoshoot, sometimes one photo is enough. Sometimes it’s street, and who knows, maybe even urbex, a passion I have pursued for a long time, again. Heck, it might even be nature and landscape at times.
I am finally seeing that it’s not about genre. Not about being the best. Or famous. It’s about documenting time. My time on this earth. And of those that see me worthy of documenting their time, even for a short moment.
So, damn. I started this blog with a whole different purpose. The purpose of being a celebration of making it through 1/3rd of my 365-year photo challenge. Well… As I can’t predict what life throws my way, my blog is the same. I have put some of the photos up in this article.
This was the first of 3 articles on this project. More in about 120-ish days.
*Edit: the profile has been deleted by now, as the project came to an untimely end. You can read here why.
~ B.B.
