A few weeks ago in the middle of a major writing slump, I decided to start showing up. I’d forgotten how to do it. I’d wake up early, brew myself a cup of coffee and sit down to write. At 5am, an indigo dawn would be just faintly visible from where I sat.
I didn’t get (and haven’t gotten) any decent piece of writing done, but in the act of showing up and sitting down to create, I started to notice my old photographs and how they could do with a reimagining.
So these past weeks, I’ve been editing away, thinking about the moments I took those photographs, how I felt. Those moments of clarity, confusion, defeat and elation. All those emotions pored into the edit. The contrast, the brightness, the colour, the shadows and the highlights.
Writing gives me a high and for a long time, I felt that that particular high was only possible when I put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper. No longer. The photographs I create are beginning to give me that same feeling.
I am glad I started showing up.