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That’s my office — FlakPhoto HQ
It’s not much, but I realized years ago that all I needed was a laptop and some Wi-Fi. Promoting photography and the people who practice it is one of my deepest passions. It’s a funny habit, and I love it.
I’ve been exploring Substack Notes for the past few weeks. It’s fun, like Twitter, Instagram, and even Facebook, without all the ad clutter. The community vibe is strong and supportive. The best part about it has been meeting so many new people. Writers, mainly, and some artists. It looks like there are quite a few photographers there too, which is awesome.
Notes is deepening my relationships in the Substack community, and it’s nice to see so many new folks subscribing to my updates. If this is your first email from me, my inaugural post sets the stage for why I decided to reboot my newsletter here. Mainly, I do what I did on the old FlakPhoto blog — promote photographers and link to their websites so you see their work and learn about them and their processes.
Playing around on Notes reminded me why I started this thing on Substack — to write about pictures and connect more closely with the creative community. Substack is great for broadcasting. But the real opportunity is to meet new people, put the social back in social media, and invest in a healthy, good-faith conversation space that's not riddled with toxic trolls or targeted ads. This network is rich with creative energy, and I want to tap into it and learn more about each of you.
Are you a writer? Artist? Filmmaker? Photographer? Please drop me a line and tell me about you and your projects. You can leave a comment below, reply to this email or write me directly. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
FlakPhoto has been a community project from the start, and this newsletter carries on that tradition. I want to encourage each of you to email me with community news anytime. Photography workshops, creative opportunities, photobook updates — It’s all fodder for FlakPhoto Digest.
I love promoting photography. If you’re making something, I want to hear about it.
I’ll post a community roundup like this from time to time. Here are some of the cool things that crossed my desk this week. Enjoy!
Women Photograph’s 2023 project grants for women & nonbinary photographers applications are open — The deadline is May 15, 2023. Please spread the word!
Kristen Joy Emack has been photographing these young women for years — it’s about time they end up in a book. I’m looking forward to this one.
You might remember Stephen Leslie from my previous posts. He’s a genius filmmaker and a fun photographer. I love this guy.
We hung out with Barb Peacock when she passed through Madison to photograph American Bedroom last year. She’s making a book too!
One more thing…
If you enjoyed my AI posts, you'll dig this —
wrote about photography and machine learning last year. Kyle is fantastic, and I'll read anything he writes. I'll bet some of you can relate to this piece. And he quotes me too! This is a good one.Okay, that’s all for now. I’m looking forward to hearing from you — Have a great week!
You're a part of this
Since you asked, outside of work my main project is my personal blog which I'm currently cross-posting onto Substack while I try out this place. My blog is a platform and archive for eclectic personal projects and posts.
My current two projects are "Notes on My Consumption" where I write about what I read (a forcing mechanism so that I'm more aware as I go through the books) and "Penny Delights" prose poems recording life with kids.
I'm also on the lookout for a visual project (either drawn or photographed), but I haven't found one that has caught my fancy. Hopefully something pops up...but if not, I'll grind something out it in 2024. I normally a go with the flow dude, but sometimes the muse only shows up with brute force.
I can't say my work is top notch, only that it's the best I can do with the time I've given myself. I'm gratified a few folks enjoy it enough to subscribe. If more join, cool, but if not, that's OK too...I hope that I would enjoy my writings if I weren't the author....but I acknowledge that Grizzly Pear might actually just be yet another personal, unfocused blog — more quirky than quality.
I'm always on the hunt for podcasts or essays about motivations and stories behind photography projects. Not the backstory of a particular person necessarily, but the ideas influencing the work. I'm looking forward to finding that on Substack!