Things I (Kind of) Learned in 2010

From a work in progress - Athens, Greece. 2010

2010 was a pretty solid year. Highlights include: being able to work with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer to help bring Vectorial Elevation to light (literally) at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, getting arrested for my forays through a sewer in Toronto, spending 4 ½ months living in Greece, and seeing books released by both my wife and myself.  On a related note, I made a good amount of progress in getting Objects of Consequence closer to being published and now have two people on board to contribute introductory texts.  I also got to know several interesting people, many through Undermontreal.com and the related documentary Under the City.

Things I learned:

• That the publishing industry is slow and how not to get entirely discouraged by this fact
• How to loosen up a bit with the camera, mostly by spending four months shooting with with a Rollei sans tripod
• How to develop a project over the course of several months without having my preconceptions get in the way of things
• How to take candids of people without feeling entirely guilty about it
• That street photography is a bit like fishing: put in enough time and you’ll catch something worth keeping eventually
• That talking in front of a group of people about my photography is easier (or at least less nerve-wracking) than I thought it would be
• That getting in touch with other photographers whose work you like never hurts
• How to look at other photographers’ work as a source of inspiration rather than discouragement
• That Fuji NP100C + a Polaroid EE100 + travel = instant fun
• That upgrading my 10-year old computer is probably something I should have done many years ago

Not quite resolutions, but things I’d like to try and learn in 2011:

• How to take pictures of people without doing it on the sneak
• How to use a view camera for an upcoming project
• How to better edit and sequence my work
• How to shoot a bit more and think a little less