People started writing off 2020 back around July or August and you can’t blame them for that. It’s been a shit show of a year filled with plenty to complain about. Where does that get you though? I’m certainly not impervious to complaining. I do plenty of it and am trying to be better in that category. 2020 beat up on me just as much as it did anyone else, but I made a conscious effort to be as positive as possible about making the best of a shitty situation. This last year was the slowest I’ve ever been commercially. Anything that was on the table got taken off because of COVID. Still though, there is plenty to be thankful for. Aside from the obvious things like health, family, and friends, I’m quite proud of the fact that I put out 2 books last year. Most photographers go their whole career without publishing once. Why, I’m not sure? And this isn’t me gloating in any way at all. I’m really proud of the books, but there’s also a million things I would change about both of them. At a certain point though, you have to let go. Mistakes are inevitable. You do your best to catch them beforehand, but once it’s printed, it’s there forever. You just have to move on and be happy with the fact that you put something out into the world during a time when most people just mailed it in. There is no such thing as perfect, so don’t abuse yourself for falling short of it. I fuckin hate that word, actually. And think it’s the most abused/overused one in the English language. It makes me cringe any time I’m out in public and someone uses it as a place holder for the fact that they can’t come up with anything else to say. 2020 was the opposite of perfect, yet we’re going to see as time goes on that a hell of a lot of good came out if it. I’m personally very excited for that. The bullshit will never stop. So it’s up to us to look through it and create something positive.
This was the first time I wasn’t able to go home (upstate New York) for Christmas to be with family. Wasn’t going to argue with my mother who was nervous about us traveling across the country and getting COVID, but I also wasn’t going to just sit around San Diego twiddling my thumbs. So Emily, Mojo, and I decided to take a road trip up to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. It was a great trip. Normally it takes a while to digest a trip to know who much fun it was. I can already feel it on this one though. That part of the country really please me, to say the least. Lot of images to come.
Click here to see images from my America series.
