Greetings From…

Last year I did a rather challenging project. The idea was to take a self-portrait every week throughout the entire year. I had done the same sort of thing in 2008 and really enjoy looking back on it. It’s a reminder of what happened at certain times in my life, even more so since I wrote a little note for every photo, journalling my week. It ranged from big decisions to small events, from moving house to realising just how many times I wear that same dress.

To make it a little easier on myself this time around I decided on a theme for 2010. It was meant to be series of postcards. Postcards capturing my life each week, written to my future self. In giving it a certain style I thought I’d get rid of the problem on how to pose differently each week. I simply had to take a postcard-worthy shot with me in it. Sort of like a holiday snap shot but much more mundane. Well, in theory this may be easier but I had to go and make it complicated by doing it all on my Hasselblad. This entails not only shooting on comparatively expensive medium format film, taking it to the lab to have it developed and then scanning it only to find out that my exposure was completely off; it also means setting up the camera on a tripod with a bulb release on a cable in public places. And then standing a few metres away from it, hoping the focus is still right and ignoring staring (or worse: commenting) strangers as I smile and pose. Every single week. Come rain or sunshine, hair freshly washed or not. Feeling like an idiot on a regular basis.

But I did it. I finished it and in retrospect I am very proud of it. It is indeed a great thing to have and some of the shots I am really quite fond of, even though not all moments portrayed were good moments. But that’s life, isn’t it?

And no, I won’t do it again this year. And hopefully not in 2012, either. Then again, I fell for it twice already, so who knows…