I added a few new photos to my Long Way Home series today, and also Ponds, Streams, and Swamps. This isn’t new work, just a few images I found while going through my archives that I overlooked the first time around.

Still no new photos, although I’m starting to think about photography again. Things are a bit hectic at the moment with a newborn at home so I don’t imagine I’ll be going out anytime soon. The ideas are starting to come back, though, I’ve been seeing pictures here and there in the world, which hasn’t happened in a while, and ideas for new series of work have been percolating too.

A few thoughts on the photos above:

1. I really didn’t like Ponds, Streams, and Swamps for a long time. These photos were taken during a very difficult time in my life and I haven’t wanted to look at them. Going through my archive now, I see a lot of good photos, and I’m happy with the series as a whole. It captures a particular quality of light and a landscape that I explored deeply for many years, and have now left behind. I have more potentially good photos in my archives that I could add, but they’re rough scans and I’ve long since sold off my film scanner. Maybe I’ll revisit them again in 20-30 years.

2. There’s a lot of room to keep working on Long Way Home. Some of the photos in the current selection will eventually be removed as the vague idea holding things together changes over time. But this is the one series I think I may continue when I start taking pictures again.

3. I’ve said this before, but the distance of time really does change the perspective on one’s own photographs, and on the photos of others. Photographs that used to have a strong effect on me have faded over time, and photos that I never noticed before stand out. There are probably quite a few images in my archive that I would love to rediscover, given enough time.