“Occasionally, in times of worry, I’ve longed to be stylish, but on second thought I say no - just let me be myself - and express rough, yet true things with rough workmanship.”
That quote, above, moves me. It speaks to me in a way that touches upon my own tender experiences. In my own artistic processes, (for, writing and taking pictures is my art,) I sometimes wonder if I need to be something else, or do something more.
Fortunately, over the years I have resisted the urge to wonder what others think, and have instead followed my own random processes, my own paths of bliss. It makes me blissful, to take photos the way I do, using the camera as a lens unto this magical world that I see before me. It makes me blissful to research each of my stories to the umpteenth degree, scouring books and articles and odd backwater writings about ethnography and ecology... only to pick a few sweet words and run with them, down here, to the white paper where I then write out my own thoughts and musings and poems. It makes me blissful to present them in this way: artfully, restrained, mysterious-like and yet revealing too. To the reader, my writings may seem a little out of place in a world of hard hitting headlines, and punctual lists, and punchy points. I never go about it in a straight-forward fashion, instead I like to contemplate the meaning of each word and sentence, and consider what it is I am really conveying. I do not offer travel advice, or even conventional wisdom. I only offer my own tiny truths, as I know them.
And this is the way I like it.
I imagine that, perhaps, the reader is taken on a journey into their own mind - as they are able to interpret my words any which way, they will apply their own experience to the matter, and thus, their inner world is revealed to them.
Instead of leaving the reader with practical tips and a tinge of FOMO over the beautiful places they have yet to visit, I hope to leave them wistful, thoughtful, understanding that the place they are at is also just as beautiful, if only they can see it. I hope my words can be like a pointing hand, a finger to the moon. I do not wish them to see me, I wish them to look further and see the moon.
But most importantly, and above all else, I wish to satisfy my own mind, which yearns to create, to explore, to learn, to see, and to love that which I look upon - I love this world by capturing it, then letting it go.
