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2022_CLondon52w1: Setting Goals

From the C.London website: "In the next year we will challenge ourselves as photographers and artists. Setting goals is the first step in that journey.  Right now in this moment think about what you’d like to achieve.  Are you hoping to get better at portraits?  Maybe you want to be able to document your travels more coherently?  Maybe you just want to give yourself a new hobby and artistic outlet.

For our first week, set a goal and make a photograph which demonstrates that goal.  We will revisit this midway through and at the end of the year."

Since just revisiting my 2021 photography goals in Week 52 of last year’s challenge, this week kicking off the 2022 challenge with photography goals forced me to think about subjectivity and objectivity in goal setting; how do know when a goal is met?  With this in mind, here are three goals for 2022:

1. Story Telling.  Continue to become a better visual storyteller.  “Every picture has a story. It may be factual. It may be fictional. It may be intentional.  It may be accidental.  It may be superficial or it may be deep.  But it’s there, somewhere.”  The difference in 2022 is that I want to do this with more than just single images and put some focus on small “series” or “projects”.  My son’s girlfriend, an art professor and accomplished artist (reganrosburg.com), has helped me articulate my “voice” in words - “The visual storyteller of unseen objects and occurrences.”  Chelsea has helped me find my voice through her coaching and critique sessions.  Sean Tucker’s new book (The Meaning In The Making) is providing inspiration to keep creating…and to do it for me.  This goal is fluid, not truly measurable, and will likely never be finished…but that’s okay as long as progress is made.

2. Organize.  This is a measurable goal.  I want to digitize old slides, negatives and snapshots to bring all of my images under the LRC catalog umbrella.  As I get older, it’s important to have my entire collection of photos in one place.

3. Website.  I have been posting my images to a Blogspot site for over 10 years.  It’s a running blog of almost entirely single images and is not very conducive to posting series or projects as noted in Goal #1 above.  Establishing a domain and creating a website that better supports the presentation of creative storytelling is therefore another measurable goal. 

 The image for this week's challenge conveys Goal #2 in progress.  The scanned slide is a self-portrait from 1968 while on a high school ski trip.  It’s been a ton of fun reacquainting with these old treasures.

Ricoh GRIIIx @ f3.5 1/80 40mm equiv ISO 400

Photographed 1/1/22