Day at a time, I suppose

Where I am right now—in terms of my frame of mind—is the result of influences that read like the recipe for school-cafeteria goulash. The stock, the foundation of this recipe, is all about 2007 being a year of intense, exponential growth for me photographically. So much happened, in such a short period of time, that I wrote at the end of the year about it having felt longer than 12 months, and it did. So with that as the foundation, it’d be pretty hard for 2008 to come close. And so far, it hasn’t. Throw in some Dara Torres and Michael Phelps, some good old-fashioned politics, and a heaping dose of my recent viewing of The Wire, and that’s where I’m at. An intense passion for things as they are, for complex characters, for beauty in unlikely places, for never giving up and turning naysayers into fuel for the fire.

A project I’ve been dancing around for six months or so crystallized for me in two moments last week: a phone call with my mother in which I described where I live, and a walk down the street with Boo, where what I saw before me—the person, the car, the light, the scene—cut right to the heart of this place. And suddenly I knew what the project was about, why I was interested in it, what I was looking for.

I’m starting to see a path in the woods, starting to see where I want to go, and it’s making sense in a way that—despite all the joy that was 2007—I didn’t feel last year. It’s not as easy as all that, not as simple. But I think there’s more substance to it, more staying power. It’ll stick to the ribs.