By Jonas Rask
Today is day 7 of February 2022. It marks the first full week of our KAGE202202 theme. Contrary to almost all of my KAGE colleagues I chose not to set any limitations for my project, neither in gear nor context or content. Well, it’s not entirely accurate, since I actually stated in my “Letter of intent” that I would try and return to a time when my photography wasn’t as restrictive as I felt it had become.
Obviously this “battle-plan” has a lot to do with me not being an official ambassador for Fujifilm anymore. I’m not even sure that me leaving the program changes anything in terms of my creativity, but I will tell you this..
The past month I have felt more visually creative than I have done in last 5 years.
It’s not that I disliked being an ambassador. I loved it. I loved almost every part of it. But what people need to understand is that when you do such a thing at the level that I was suddenly doing it at, you suddenly feel limited in what you can express. Even though no one has ever told me to do things in a certain way, I couldn’t help but feel pressure coming from within myself.
The pressure to always “1-up” what I did the day before.
The pressure to always put out better writing than the post that came before what I was currently writing.
The pressure to grow and stay relevant on various social media outlets.
All while trying to juggle my full time profession and my family and friends.
How I had the surplus energy to keep at it for 7 years I will never know. But I was growing tired. And 2 years of pandemic isolation didn’t exactly help.
So I did the only sensible thing.
I stopped and took a good long hard look at the whole situation. I acted on it, and it was definitely in due time.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever walked outside, stopped, faced the sun, head tilted slightly backwards, closed your eyes and taken a long deep breath? Have you?
Then you know exactly how these last 6 weeks have felt in regards to my photographic identity and creativity. I won’t say that I’m free, since I was never bound by anything - But I’m starting to regain some of the pure joy that made me do this in the first place.
My pressure is off me.
So this past week I’ve been documenting my everyday doings. However small they might have been. Just like I did when I first started photography. I’ve worn a camera all day, everyday like I always do, and I’ve shot left and right. Just because it was fun and because it’s what I love to do.
I have been feeding my own instagram channel with various documentary/street styled images since that’s basically what I’ve enjoyed shooting. But tonight I noticed this tiny little plant that Christine has put on our dining room table. I was so drawn to its minuscule size and texture that I wanted to capture it.
The following 10 minutes I shot 10 shots within an immediate vicinity of 10 meters
This is my new beginning.
“Textures of Vicinity”
All images shot on Fujifilm X-Pro3 and the XF80mm f/2.8 Macro
Some of these images might be well suited for background use, so I’ve packed them all up for you to download without watermarks in full resolution. You can download the .zip file HERE