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.
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…
During the first year of the pandemic, I remember telling a friend how much I was enjoying staying home and not having to go anywhere or do anything. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. My friend didn’t understand: “But you can always just choose to stay home rather than…
I wrote my last two artist statements in the swimming pool. Stroke after stroke, words that refused to come to me before seemed to just appear in my head and form into sentences and then paragraphs and all I had to do is hold onto them long enough to write them down once I…
I’m not making any New Year’s resolutions. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I made one. Frankly, the middle of a cold dark winter is a pretty crap time to do that. I grew up in St Petersburg, Russia, where the January day is only about four hours long – if the sun is not…