Part of the trouble with the internet, and maybe the world in general, is that everybody wants everything to fit somewhere. When I started blogging 10 years ago, I didn’t want to blog about just sports, religion, politics, parenting or my hobbies – I wanted to write about whatever I was on about that day, but keep everything in the same place. That is how Unfocused Content was born – a blog about everything I ever thought about.
Needless to say, no one cared.
Since the title of this page is “Photography,” I realize I need to start talking about photography pretty quickly, or you’ll be gone. I promise it’s coming. But, before I get there, I want to stress that I believe nothing exists inside a neat little rectangle. The things we experience do not happen at specific times or specific days of the month. We could be skydiving and realize that we forgot to file our taxes. Those two things have nothing in common, but they happen simultaneously, and that’s sort of what life is about.
When I began taking pictures to fill the creative void left during the time I could not write, I knew that “taking pictures” was not going to stand very long as an activity separate from all other activities in my life. In the beginning, I carefully carved out a portion of my day that was specifically designated as “picture time.” During that time, nothing else happened, and it was pretty glorious. But, things change. This month I’ve been lucky enough to get just two of those times, and even during those, other stuff was going on in my head.
What I think I discovered along the way was that, at least for me, photography was never about finding the perfect shot of a something that I could sell to a magazine. Instead, it is about finding a relationship with a thing or an idea that was indicative of my life at that moment, and drawing some parallels using that picture, along with the words that the picture inspired.
That was how WriteJayWrite rose from the ashes as my Photo Essay site. Over there I select one of my photographs, write a story related to that photograph, and draw some conclusions about life. I had some hesitation about taking a site that was originally dedicated to the craft of writing, and turning it into a site focused on photo essays, but I’ve enjoyed it so much that some of that uncertainty has subsided. It’s possible that the essays will move to another site, and that WriteJayWrite will reclaim its birthright as a writing site. Either way, what matters is that I find it interesting, and I think you might too.
Of course, if you just want to see some of my photos, and don’t have time to get all deep and stuff, check out Photos.JayGroce, where I just post pictures for no reason at all.
