Just closed my Europe Journal and started my Australia Journal for Blurb Roadshow. I used ink on these pages instead of acrylic. Ink has a tendency to soak through the thin paper. I like it, but I’m still partial to acrylic. Plus I like the saturation and quick dry time of acrylic. But, there is a wildness to ink, with bleed and spray, that marries itself to the idea of chance. Of not knowing precisely what I’m going to get, and not knowing whether the bleed will actually outshine the original sketch. These books are mostly about words. A shelter if you will, from my life and mind. A safe haven. I also use them for real notes. Interviews, details, logistics, etc.
I’m not sure where I would be without the journal. I really found the journal lifestyle in 1993 after finding a book about Peter Beard. One of the reasons I make so many of the publications I make is because I journal and the book becomes the fertile soil of ideas. And let me just say, even though I don’t work as a photographer any longer, the publications I make are hugely important to me. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a portfolio online. I haven’t had one in almost six years. But I still show work to people. I show in print form. Because in the age of social media and digital noise nothing cuts through the bullshit like print. When you put a print piece in front of someone it’s like exposing your creative self.
My current goal with the journal is to learn how to sketch. As of today I have ZERO ability to do so. It’s gonna be a long road with lots of wasted paper but I can’t run from this any longer.
Australian Journal
Comments 7
Daniel,
I love the journal and I’m excited for you as you set out to learn to sketch. As an artist, I want to encourage you that drawing is a learned skill that anyone can do, given the will to learn.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Watch out for those snakes and spiders in Australia…
Daniel,
I discovered your website when I was lost, I was looking for answers, and I thought one of the possible solutions to my misery was cutting off social media. And so I did at the time, meanwhile I came back, but i feel the point of my encounter with your website was not about social media. In times when all the information we receive is random, unsolicited and unfiltered (some of it good but most of it not), your website, and you, is the ONLY place (and author) on the internet where I go with purpose. Every now and then I type in your address, or your name on twitter and spend time checking what you’ve done since the previous visit. I recommend your website to all the creatives I know, I want everyone to listen to Dispatches. Thanks to you I discovered the love for printing photography (I already loved having books of other people, but I never printed my work before). After an inspirational trip to Marfa, Texas, with a friend who is a writer, we put together a travel story (‘Marfa State of Mind’) and published it on Blurb. The quality of the print is more than what I expected, and I can’t have enough of seeing those photos in print and reading our story. If it wasn’t for this book, the memory of this trip would slowly fade away, and the photos will get lost among the many thousands on my hard drives.
‘Marfa State of Mind’ starts with “There are magical encounters…’ and I think my encounter with you and your work (even though one sided), it is a magical one for me.
Anyway, all this just to say Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, from the heart. What you do is so important to me and I’m sure to many others in the www.
Claudia
Author
Claudia,
That is one of the nicest comments I’ve ever received. I’m so glad you are finding something of substance here. I feel like the site is still in its infancy. Not sure where it’s going, but with the title “Shifter” I can keep morphing. Printing is key. And it’s fun. Books, prints, magazines, whatever you can do. The Marfa book looks great. West Texas is a great place. I spent 15 years in Texas and know it fairly well. Thanks for taking the time to write, and good luck with your shoots and prints.
It’s been great to go along with you on your work travels through your writing. This post on journaling resonates with me though. I feel it’s such an important practice, and in some ways, a luxury to be write to about your life and to create time and space to do it.
Author
Ada,
It is a luxury. And a necessity at times, at least for me. Something so simple can be so powerful. Strange especially when you think that what is being written down will probably never be seen.
Thanks for the inspiration! Think I will try to make a journal myself for the upcoming Spain trip!:-)
Author
Wim,
One of the best things you can do.