Gone for the month

Hey folks,
Just a friendly reminder: if you’re wondering why it’s so quiet around here lately, that’s because most of the action this month is happening at kagecollective.com, with #kage202202. We just hit the halfway mark and already, the project has generated more stories than our past two years combined. That feels awfully good.

So far, I’ve been holding to my self-imposed framework, although there are times when I really want to spin the camera back to landscape. But I resist. And while the vintage Pentax 50 mm lens isn’t perfect, I enjoy those imperfections—the vignetting, the softness, and a vaguely hazy quality at times. I’m also shooting raw on this project, chasing a slightly different, maybe more subdued look.

Strangely, on most days, I see the pages of a book in my mind as I’m shooting. Actual paper, not a screen. I don’t have any plans on this front, but the portrait orientation imposes a physical layout in my mind. I’ve never really thought about the impact of orientation, but it’s interesting: in terms of iconography and visual culture, the landscape format clearly implies a filmstrip for me. That’s what it relates to most closely, a sequence begging for transitional moments, frames lifted from a moving object. It’s deeply kinetic. The portrait format, on the other hand, is inherently more static. There’s a different flow to it, more formal, in a way.

Part of this is probably due to the physical manipulations of the camera, using a manual lens etc. The results can’t be quite as reactive. But I’m fairly certain there are other elements at play—less controlled levels of consciousness intermixed, and decades of visual input, all of it steering me in a certain way, tied to everything I’ve known and consumed before. 

Projects are always explorations.