STOLEN ECHOES: A GIFT FROM 2020 AND LOOKING FORWARD…
2020 - Wow, what an insane year! Let's just leave it at that for now but with the new year finally here, I'd like to reflect on some of the more positive developments that have come about for me, and my photography, during the ups and downs of the year we love to hate.
Straight away I'd like to highlight the formation of this collective, Stolen Echoes, as one of the best things to come out of 2020 for me. It all started in April that year as lock-downs started to sweep the globe and many of us began looking for ways to work and socialise online. A kind offer from Jeff Karp to join in on a Sunday Zoom call, hang out and basically spend time chatting about photography, was my ticket into this world and I jumped at the opportunity.
Around the same time I was also trying to find my feet having recently moved from a two year stay in New York City back to my home country, Australia. A move which turned out to be impeccably timed of course, with Australia being probably one of the best places in the world to live during the Coronavirus pandemic. At the same time though, this new chapter was also providing me with a lot of questions to answer about how to move forward with my photography. Do I want to keep shooting street just as I had been doing in New York? - Maybe living now in a more rural area in the Blue Mountains means it's time to transition to landscape photography? Or do I just travel into Sydney as often as possible for that big city dynamic?
Having decided I didn't need to answer these questions right away - and that I'm probably overthinking things (as I often do) I ended up finding myself just taking my camera to wherever I was drawn to, at any given moment.
My regular Zoom calls with Jeff, Kris, Dan, Hugh and Kevin Hooks (an early participant of our calls) were such a big part of finding my path in this new chapter. Just like many of us I was shooting less in 2020 and sometimes it almost felt like I was slowly loosing my passion for photography. But every Monday morning that feeling would be extinguished. An early start with a pot of coffee and greetings from these friends from Instagram's street photography community, almost made it feel like I was still in the middle of everything I felt living and shooting back in New York City.
Oh how nice it was to hang out with these guys and talk about the art of photography, discuss images, give and take feedback and simply have more in depth interactions than those we are used to on places like Instagram. As the year progressed things evolved and the idea of forming a photography collective eventually started to dominate proceedings during our talks. It was to be a place where we could continue sharing and critiquing each others work, but presented publicly rather than confined within a Zoom meeting. A place to post and engage, without motivation coming from numbers and algorithms. A place where we could explore new ideas and feed off of each others, go off-niche, change the pace, create art, go more in depth, but most of all; just be whatever it is we want it to be and evolve as we see fit.
So why does all this make Stolen Echoes one of my biggest highlights of 2020?
Well honestly, it's because of some of the less positive aspects of that unforgettable year.
At some point I found myself becoming overly sucked into the politics of the pandemic and many of the other events surrounding it, something I'm sure many of us experienced. Fortunately at some point I realised the need to distract myself from a lot of the negativity floating around on the internet. My focus shifted to my new building job here in the Mountains, my friends and family and working on our new home; whatever it took to spend less time on my phone and keep my mind elsewhere. I often went on walks at night with my dog rather than vegging out on You Tube and generally being able to spend more time in nature really helped me to reflect on what mattered most at the time, which definitely wasn't my online presence. At some point I also decided to take a break from posting on Instagram and continue only running my community account, street.finder, together with the Stolen Echoes team. Instagram was the main place where I'd been sharing my photography since early 2018 and with my motivation for shooting fading somewhat it started to feel like I'd just be posting images purely for the sake of feeding a feed.
With hindsight though, all of this has actually been very positive. Taking a break from “it all” and working on Stolen Echoes with Jeff, Kris, Hugh and Dan has provided a much needed recalibration. The opportunity they've gifted me to be a part of this collective has really helped me feel ready to get that next chapter in my photographic journey going. And in all honesty, if it weren't for the Coronavirus pandemic and the lock-downs of 2020, Stolen Echoes most probably wouldn't have come to be...
