Executive Summary on the Notion Project
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
35 mm ● HP5 ● Fujica Compact Delux ● 50mm lens ● Bay Area
Over the last few years, I recorded, archived, and cataloged every picture I took with my film cameras. That project affectionately became known as “the notion”.
I didn’t really have a plan for what I wanted the notion to become; I just knew I was spending a lot of time behind the camera, and I wanted to track what is going on. I initially set it up purely to track what kinds of film stocks I was shooting, which cameras, and what subjects I was taking pictures of. The idea was to be as empirical as possible, just so I could visualize the trends of my photography habits as cool graphs.
Film Stocks
*Shout out to Yue
35 mm ● Gold 200 ● Nikon N60 ● 50mm lens ● Bay Area
As the photos rolled in, 36 exposures at a time, things slowly started to change. Some subject tags merged, other tags embraced overlap with one another, and others remain unclear and more dynamic than initially imagined. I started to run up against the wall that is the complexity of life. Bumping into the limitation of using a rigid database software to record the breadth of experiences recordable by a camera ultimately opinionated the data I was gathering… and I thought that was a bad thing… at first…
ISO
35 mm ● Gold 200 ● Fujica Compact Delux ● 45mm lens ● Santa Cruz
I thought that having to reframe how a subject tag applies to a photo or thinking “how much landscape do I need to give this picture the landscape tag?” were all compromises to the empirical goal of the notion. But they weren’t compromises at all! It was a natural next step in thinking about my craft and my cataloging. All this data gathering and indexing with the ultimate goal of epic graphs started to show me something you can’t express on a chart.
Between subject tags, looking at the camera usage over time, I found these patterns that popped in subtle ways. I see this pattern in everything I practice. I still don’t know how to think about these patterns, but the overall idea that connects them is that, ultimately, the things photographed are things I care about or value in some unique and intangible way… that feeling and the connections seem to be inherently ungraphical.
And so I want to move where and what I record these things from “the notion” to “the here”! I want to broaden the scope of my records to some of the things that “the notion” just wouldn’t be good for, like my art, my design work, and all the other things I love, Vocaloid, cooking, and other cool people!
Color vs B/W
35 mm ● UltraMax 400 ● Nikon N60 ● 50mm lens ● San Jose
I have MANY other catalysts for this adventure: I hate the algorithmization and infinite scroll of social media, I want a platform I can curate to my own tastes, and in the wake of AI I want to put my money where my mouth is, and I want to be a part of the real human internet. I could continue on and on forever. I really think this is simply the thesis statement of my next big project. And don't expect super frequent updates asjkldnaksnjd If you know the rate at which my side projects normally go… expect this to be even slower. The scope of this project is gonna be much broader compared to everything else.
35 mm ● UltraMax 400 ● Nikon N60 ● 50mm lens ● San Jose
35 mm ● Kentmere 400 ● Minolta A5 ● 50mm lens ● Bay Area
35 mm ● Fuji color 200 ● Nikon F2A ● 50mm lens ● Bay Area
35 mm ● fuji superia premium 400 ● Minolta A5 ● 50mm lens ● Bay Area
One of the things I want to avoid with “The Here” is setting goals… which sounds very lazy, BUT! I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into what this should be…
One thing I will commit myself to doing is to make a fun newsletter once a season. To summarize anything exciting happening on “The Here” and to add something fun to your email inbox.