“I do a lot of smallish side projects: zines, online slideshows, that sort of thing. This sort of activity is analogous to a band playing in the garage: it is meant to be quick, dirty, and a bit out of control.” — Alec Soth [1]

That is essentially why I keep doing Nisshi; it was never meant to be super-tight, edited-to-death long-form photography. That isn’t how I see my photography, or even life in general, where most things are out of my control, no matter how much I’d like to think otherwise.

Embracing that chaos is what makes life enjoyable, and that is perhaps the central guiding principle behind any photography I do for myself. Commissions and commercial assignments are, of course, different—control over every part of the process is crucial—and that drives me further into the chaotic part of photography, where I take what I can find where I can find them, rather than set things up meticulously.

I am working on a couple of long-term projects, and once I figure out how they should be presented, I’ll have more to say about them. Until then, I’ll be doing Nisshi till I’m sick of it.

[1] http://www.aperture.org/blog/hold-em-fold-em-conversation-alec-soth/

Blog

Posts tagged with alec-soth

“Quick, dirty, and a bit out of control”