The 52 Week Project is back!

I know I haven’t been consistent with it so it kinda defeats the whole purpose. Traveling made it hard to keep up with it, and when I got back I just couldn’t get myself into that rhythm I was into, of shooting regularly. I justified it in my head by thinking I’ve already got so much to edit from my trip – which is bad, I know.
But the real reason? I was, I am scared.
what if no one likes it what if this the last good image I make what if I can’t do this anymore what if this turns out horribly what if I run out of ideas what if I can’t think of anything to shoot why am I even doing this what if I’m saying too much what if I’m exposing too much what if I tell people more than I should what if this comes back to haunt me won’t it be easier to just go back into my shell and hide
And that’s just about 10% of what goes on in my head on a daily basis. Despite all the fears, the ones I’ve mentioned and the ones I’ll never speak of, I persevere. This isn’t something I would ever want to give up, not only because of how good it feels to create something out of nothing, but because of people’s support and people telling me that they can relate to my work. We all feel the same things. We are not alone.

So I stopped at image 23, and the theme was dance. If you haven’t seen it, it’s here. The next theme was letters. And this is what I did:

I thought I’d tell you a bit about my thought process for this one, in case it’s not so obvious. It went something like:
Letters.
Letters I’d never send.
A room full of letters I’d never send.
Things I’d never say.
Drowning in words I’d never say.

To do this, I bought a kiddy pool, filled it with water then added milk and flour to make it white and murky. I’ve seen Brooke Shaden doing that in one of her videos (or Creative Live, I’m not sure) and I’ve wanted to do it since. This was my second attempt, the first time I tried it I ran out of time. It got dark really fast and I didn’t get extra shots and I was just unhappy with the main image. That was a week ago, I was planning on doing it again two days later but I got sick and didn’t wanna risk getting cold again. I’m all good now though!
For the “letters”, I just started writing down random stuff with watercolors. I used watercolors hoping the ink would bleed a little when I put the paper into the water. It did, but not as much as I hoped it would and it wasn’t so obvious. I’m still happy with how it looks though.

When I showed this to my sister, she said it looks like ice, which I thought was pretty cool.

Next theme: temptation.
gahhh. nooo.

2014-2017 52 Week Project Thoughts 52 week project amani alshaali challenge conceptual photography failure fears fine art photographer fine art photography hope insecurities inspiration letters photography photography challenge photoshop photoshop edit self acceptance thoughts water