365 Project Finished

Last Saturday I posted the 365th and thus last image of the year-long, aptly named, 365 project. All but two images were photos taken on the iphone, the two exceptions being drawings, one done on the iPhone, one on the iPad. One image a day. Sort of. There were days when one photo did not suffice, when I felt that a small series was better suited to what I tried to convey that day. That was kinda breaking the rules of 'one picture a day', but as Bettie Davis put it in 'Death on the Nile', rules are meant to be broken - at least mine are, by me.

To answer the question that may or may not be uppermost in your mind: was it worth it?

The short answer is: Yes.

The long answer: sometimes it didn't feel like it. There was one rule of thumb for the duration of the project: if I didn't have a picture by nightfall, I knew I'd be in trouble. We all know how well the iPhone behaves in anything but daylight, so finding a good picture once the sun was down was extra challenging - and sometimes downright frustrating. That was usually the time when I cursed the undertaking, when I thought it wasn't worth it.

With this in mind, most mornings saw me taking all kind of detours on my way to work, finding places in Berlin I'd never seen before; walking the parts of town that before I only rushed through on trains. So, if anything, the project served as an impetus to break out of the daily routine and seek out new worlds and new civilizations right inside my home town.

If you check the list of tags with which I labelled the photos, you find that 'Berlin' made the number 1 spot.  It's where I live, so no surprise there; however, I've felt all along that the blog was as much about Berlin as it was about me. And the images certainly reflect the different sides of the city - the good, the bad and ugly. 

As to the number 2 and 3 spots in the tag ranking: no surprise either (to me at least, but then again, I've known myself longer than you have) - they are 'People' and 'Urban'. Those two topics have always been my main interest in photography, especially people. Since I spend so much time each day travelling on trains and subways, it's no small wonder that I used the occasion to photograph a fair number of my fellow travelers. Some people have called these shots borderline voyeuristic, but I like them. And I never ever tried to expose people and paint someone in a bad light. 

A few tags have crept into the top 10 which I wasn't expecting this time last year. 'Little Things' for example. It's the label I used for all kinds of small objects which I photographed, from things found on the street to objects around the flat. Something I'd not normally shoot, so again, the project led me to leave the well trodden paths. The times when I got stuck at the end of the day without a propre photo was the time when I'd get creative - doing collages for example, or arranging still lives, or altering noise-filled photos to give them a cartoon-like look. Or simply trying out photo app after photo app... . 

One other top ten tag which I wasn't counting on this time last year is 'India'. I got to go four times in all to that country this year and loved it every time. For a photographer, India is a dream: it's colourful, it's interesting, it can be gorgeous and it can be downright scary (the poverty, especially). Of course, for a visitor, India's chaos can be a nightmare, but the Indians more than make up for it through their hospitality and kindness. If you are interested, I put up a selection of the photos I took over there in a special section on my website (click here), you'll see what I mean.

What was interesting to note over the year was how well or less well the photos were received. To my still lingering dismay, I found that most of the people photographs - especially the subway portraits - which I liked best found little to no response. Others, mostly sunsets, sunrises or other 'wild sky' images, were commented on and retweeted a lot. However, I was happy to note that my urban and architectural photos met with a certain amount of approval, as did the few nature' photos which I uploaded (I'm not a great landscape photographer, but sometimes, especially now in the fall, I couldn't resist).

In all, even if I uploaded a few photos which I normally would not have deemed postworthy, I'm more than happy with the vast majority of them; and indeed, there are many which would not have happened had I not been under pressure to try different things or look into different corners to find the 'image of the day'. More than once, that added pressure made all the difference.

So yes, it was very much worth it.

What now? I will continue this blog - just not (necessarily) on a daily basis. I will post photos when and if I have photos worth posting. I like working in series, so I suspect there will be more of those. And as I continue to travel, I will certainly also keep documenting those travels. And I'll try to think of a new project, just so that I feel the pressure to leave the well trodden paths again.

Meanwhile, my big thanks to everyone who has been following the blog for the past year, especially those of you who have been favouring, commenting and/or retweeting the entries. It very definitely would not have been the same without you.

See you around.