New year, new projects!!
One of these is an exercise in not overthinking and letting inspiration flow a bit more freely. Over the years I’ve accumulated thousands of photos while travelling – something I’ve always enjoyed doing for the sake of doing it. While I did consider at one point returning to school for Photography (and ultimately chose Illustration), I’ve always maintained a strictly amateur approach to shooting. I know very little about cameras, their mechanics, or photography theory, but I do think photography informs (and is informed by) my eye for composition, mood, and colour. Also, being egged on by friends such as Toronto-based Illustrator Dave Murray while we were in Hong Kong or Japan to share these flicks recaptured the thing that made shooting fun in the first place. Also a creative with a love of photography, Dave asked homie and Toronto-based shutterbug (and my business partner) Lucas DeClavasio and myself if we wanted to run some prints and hold a holiday show with him at She Said Gallery – a space that is also a laundromat.
And so Spin Cycle popped up for a few days of laughs and some sweet flicks in the unlikeliest of places.
One of the things prepping some shots for Spin Cycle resulted in was me organizing a number of my photos. I really enjoyed going back and looking through shots – from trips far and wide to Amsterdam, Bruges, Berlin, Hong Kong, Japan, California, and more. One thing that struck me was the richness and diversity of colour, that was also somehow unified despite locations having specific feelings. Weather or time of day, natural or urban, old and new materials – there were commonalities here and there that spanned the globe. This struck me belatedly as a thought that really felt part and parcel with a lot of the perspectives I try to communicate through other aspects of my work. So I decided to start sharing them, beyond the ones I prepared for our group show, and Connate Chroma was brought into the world Jan 1st of 2023!
I created a new Instagram page for the purpose, with the hopes of recapturing the vibe that made the platform so appealing before monetization and algorithms turned photo sharing into a full-contact sport. My hope is that maybe some of these flicks (and their accompanying swatches) might spark some daily inspiration in the viewer; to create, to photograph, to travel. Pop over and have a look! And if you like these shots and would like to see more where that came from without the restrictions of Instagram’s aspect ratio (and free of fun little swatches), you can scroll my VSCO account.
