The FlakPhoto Year in Review
2023 has been a fantastic year filled with images and ideas. I hope it's been the same for each of you. Happy New Year, friends!
Can you believe it?
Another year has come and gone. I swear, the older I get, the faster time flies. By all measures, 2023 has been good for me: I took up yoga, lost some weight, read a bunch of books, traveled in Italy, and looked at a lot of photography. One of the best parts, of course, has been writing this newsletter. I rebooted FlakPhoto Digest last year and am happy with how it’s evolving.
I hope you don’t mind some end-of-year reflections. ‘Tis the season, right?
More than 5,000 new readers signed on this year — thanks so much for checking it out. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at my subscriber stats. Still, I was delighted to see that as of this writing, FlakPhoto is read across all 50 U.S. states and in 156 countries across the globe. That’s pretty amazing, and it makes me feel like sitting at my desk week after week to share these things with you has been worth it.
Many of you know that I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I'm a photo guy, so Instagram is my favorite social net. I'm exploring Threads, and it's fun, but it doesn't really hold my attention. X continues to bore me. Many of my family and photo friends hang out on Facebook, and it's great for sharing pictures with my photo community. Substack Notes is something else — a thoughtful place where intelligent people write about big ideas and life experiences. I plan to spend more time on Notes in 2024. If you’re hanging out there, please drop me a line so I can follow your feed.
I had initially planned to write a “FlakPhoto Books of the Year” post this week. For various reasons — hosting an out-of-town friend, family time, and too much holiday celebration — that never materialized. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to use this week to reflect on the year and highlight some of my favorite posts from 2023. I’ve listed ten of those below. Since so many of you have joined me here over the past twelve months, I assume some are new to you. Take a look; there’s a little something for everyone.
Fear not, book folks! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to feature more photography bookwork in the newsletter in 2024, so stay tuned for that.
Finally, FlakPhoto Digest is a free, reader-supported publication. However, I am thrilled that over 300 of you support the newsletter with paid subscriptions. Seriously, that means so much to me. Writing this newsletter takes hours of work. If you appreciate my writing, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For $5/month, paid subscriptions keep FlakPhoto going. Thanks for your support. I appreciate it!
FlakPhoto Year In Review 2023
The Practice of Attention
“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” ― Mary Oliver Sometimes life gets in the way. That’s what’s been happening over here. Or maybe my super-productive end of the year resulted …
Remembering Larry Fink
“Viscerality is my perceptual mode. Simply spoken, it means that I want to touch everything that I love. Hopefully, my pictures are a testimony to the love of the senses.” — Larry Fink Another one of the greats, gone. That’s the way it goes, right? We only get one sho…
Down the AI rabbit hole
“Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make i…
Avedon at 100
We all stand on the shoulders of giants. That’s a beautiful thing about photography — learning how previous artists have inspired those artists we admire. Dawoud Bey is one of my favorite photographers, and I always look forward to his so…
Spotlight: Greg Miller
Every picture has a story. You know by now that I love hearing photographers talk about their work. Yet, surprisingly few imagemakers have leveraged the power of the internet to publish audio stories that feature their photography. I want to do more of that here in
To photograph is to learn how to die
How’s everybody doing out there? The lazy summertime vibes are in full effect here in Madison. I’ve been AWOL lately, and I suspect most of you haven’t missed me since you’re doing the same thing in your world. Good for you! That’s the way it should be. I told you before that I wanted to open
On RADAR and Red Clay
"It is place, permanent position in both the social and topographical sense, that gives us our identity." J. B. Jackson Years ago, the RISD Museum asked me to curate an exhibition of contemporary landscape photography. That was exciting because the landscape had always been an interest of mine. I’m an avid hiker and backpacker, and these days a…
Revisiting The Jazz Loft Project
My twin passions — jazz and photography! Something different this week: An extended essay exce…
What inspires you?
I’m feeling flat today. I know you can relate. This has been an intense week at work, I’ve been extremely productive in that part of my life, and I know I’m drained from the experience. I’m tired and probably need a good rest. But it always makes me feel a little low when my creative juices aren’t flowing. Do you know what I mean? I wanted to sen…
Aaron Turner: Moves from the Archive
And now for something completely different. I told you in my previous post that I would explore new ideas in year two of FlakPhoto Digest. Last year, I dabbled in bringing other photographers’ voices to the foreground — Tim Davis talked about his photo safaris
One more thing…
It’s a tradition to show Winter Pictures on FlakPhoto once the snow flies. There’s no snow in Madison right now, so I’m living vicariously through these images at the moment — No worry; it’ll be here soon enough. I show these reader submissions on my Instagram throughout the season. I’m curating another Winter Pictures post I’ll publish in the New Year. Please email me with your work.
Okay, that's all for 2023. Happy New Year, friends! I would love to hear what you have in store for 2024. Please email me anytime, comment below, or reply directly to this newsletter. Take care and be well. Have fun tomorrow night!
2024 is destined to be busy; amongst the goals (read Monty Python Spanish Inquisition voice here) are Caffenol developing, 8x10 X-ray film, and perhaps getting into negative scanning. And of course keeping the 71 Land River chugging along
Nicely worded Andy. The year in reflection when the hour strikes. It takes time to change time. I dropped it on the floor yesterday. You can fix anything. Close your eyes and step out. I’ll see you to the door.