a newsletter we follow all the threads, think and feel deeply about complex things, and get inspired by the unexpected. A newsletter for lateral thinkers and creative souls. For multi-hyphenates and storytellers. It’s for rebels-at-heart and those who feel everything so, so deeply. Weekly letters into your inbox, with selected essays published here.
I’ll start with a confession. I don’t celebrate Christmas. Not really. Hashtag awkward. I’m sure pretended to for years, in an effort to assimilate, to be like everyone else. But if I’m honest with myself, I don’t actually care all that much. I grew up in the Soviet Union, were any talk of…
‘Tis the season for looking back at the year past – and planning for the year to come. For me, it includes considering which projects I want to start showing to people at portfolio reviews, to get important feedback and also to get myself and my work in front of decision-makers in the…
Frankly, I don’t know what to write. I’m battling a low level cold and, you know, the crisis of humanity, so all my thoughts are incoherent, fragmented. Nothing I can say or do feels important right now, but I’m trying to fight this feeling, getting back to what I know can and will propel me into…
At the end of last year I took a memoir writing class. I wasn’t – and still am not – planning on writing a memoir, but I wanted to (a) get back to more creative writing which I loved when I was younger (and which I abandoned out of fear of sharing my work with anyone) and (b) to write…
I recently came across a question in one of the photography groups I’m in about marketing on the spectrum. The anonymous poster shared that they tried to do ALL. THE. THINGS. to market their photography business: networking groups, door-to-door marketing, Instagram lives – you name it. They…
It’s has been an interesting few months. I’ve got more rejections that ever – and for someone who struggles with rejection sensitivity this can be super tough. I have to remind myself that it means I’ve put myself forward to more opportunities to get my work seen, and it will eventually pay…
This week, I launched the Kickstarter to print my first ever photography book, Beauty Hunting. Despite it’s apparent simplicity, this book has been three years in the making – but it didn’t start out as a book at all. Work in Progress with Antonina Mamzenko is a reader-supported…
Have you ever felt like you can’t take another photograph / write another word / draw another picture ever again? I have. As creatives, and especially when we earn a living through our creativity, whether it’s selling paintings, making movies, writing books, being hired to photograph weddings, or…
I had a couple of interesting conversations recently about whether we need labels or not. They came about as I started showing my project Un(masking) at portfolio reviews (I’ll write separately about the benefits – and the dangers – of seeking feedback on your…
I started this Substack at the beginning of 2023 on a bit on a whim, as a space to write more freely about ALL the things that I find interesting, to let my mind wander and wonder. And those things are many – and they range from childhood education to creativity to pretty pictures of clouds…