I’ve been getting pretty frustrated lately. Stuck in a rut of self doubt and clouded direction feeding the retched low self esteem monster. My comfort zone being too familiar and therefore stifling. Examining the relationship between ambition and ego and whether all of these thoughts are actually worth giving a fuck about at all. Where’s the balance between play and success and what does success even mean? It’s all so tiresome and I remind myself to take it all with a pinch of salt and return my focus to the smell and touch of the present.
So I decided to change things up and shoot some analogue again. The fact Thoban Jappie from Mobile Media Mob had a Leica M6 with 35mm and 50mm lenses for me made me, well rather excited and motivated to say the least. Red Bull had a basketball event called King of the Rock which took place Constitution Hill in Johannesburg which I got to cover. Craig Kolesky was the official photographer so I was totally freed up to just shoot what I wanted. Now I know these cameras are status symbols and all that but what’s really got me sold was the whole range finder experience. It’s so different to my DSLR. The experience of taking the photos became so much fun. Then there’s the anxiety of waiting to see if any of the pics came out. I woke up on Sunday morning feeling hungover and only later realised my drained state was from having to pay so much attention to what I was doing the whole day. The slow process of each shot was a great departure from usual habits and I’m pretty damn psyched on how many shots I got that I like.
You can see the Red Bull feature here which includes Thoban Jappie‘s first event edit which I think its terrific. Can’t wait to see what he does next. He has a great way of interpreting ideas and conceptualising really engaging content. Now back to me and the results: