A Time for Focus
As another new year begins I feel it is a good time to reflect on 2024 and consider my photographic ambitions for 2025. Having spent over three decades working in a corporate environment I am reluctant to use the word ‘objectives’. My career was continuously bound by corporate language, words such as mission, vision, values, objectives, delivery and performance, words that I now realise with hindsight shaped my thinking, behaviours and actions. Looking back on that time I can see that the corporate language, and culture, restricted my free thinking and negatively influenced my ability to be my true self. In fact I think that in many ways I became an actor in a corporate cast, doing my job in a way which I believed was expected of me rather than in a way that represented my true being.
So, as I look back at the past year, and look forward with anticipation to the coming twelve months, I do so with a more gentle and free outlook than I have in the past. I do want to improve as a creative artist, and take the next steps as a photographer, but without the pressure to succeed or with specific objectives that I have set for myself. Looking forward I have identified some ambitions for my photography, in many ways they are more dreams than set targets. I will try and make progress with them, however the most important thought in the coming year is to enjoy my photography and free up my creativity through a more relaxed approach.
Looking back at 2024 I feel it was a steady but unremarkable year. I spent more time out in the field than in previous years, and have developed my technical understanding. However, I feel I have developed some bad habits which has stunted my creative development. While I think it is good to revisit familiar locations, I have come to rely on one or two locations which in turn results in a repeat of the same images. I also feel that I have lacked direction and focus, resulting in some decent single images rather than a body of work that can be viewed as a collection or incorporated into a book.
Looking forward to 2025, and using 2024 as a starting point, my primary ambition is to have a stronger focus to my photography. Yes, I want to have a more relaxed approach to my work, but I want that to be the way I work rather than the output of my work. While it is nice to create single stand-alone images, I really want to start to build a collection of images that can form the body of a book project at some point in the future. I am not setting myself a target for completion as that will get in the way and place pressure on myself, however at the end of this coming year I hope to see the start of a collection and something to build upon.
So, now is a time for me to focus on where I want to take my photography, to develop a better understanding of the story I want to tell through my images. I don’t want to drift through another year without a sense of purpose, but I do want to progress without the pressure of objectives and timelines. As I leave my professional career behind me I want to rid myself of the corporate bullshit which dominated my life for far too long. My future will have a focus, and will be built upon creatvity, purpose, and being true to myself.
