Hello everyone,
I hope this message finds you doing well and having a fantastic spring. It has been quite a while since I have shared a post on here - November 11, 2023 to be exact. With a cup of hot cocoa in hand and the spring sunlight pouring through the shutters in my office, I felt compelled to write you today. I am definitely out of practice with this whole newsletter thing. I sure hope posting to Substack still works the same. Lots of unknowns here, please bear with me. Below I have shared a few things that have been going on since I lasted shared a newsletter. I hope you enjoy the updates.
How about you?
How are you doing? What is new in your creative practice in 2024? Do you have any new projects or trips coming soon? I would love to hear from you whether in the comments below or email me directly.
Warm regards and have a great week ahead.
Jeff
2024 CREATIVE PURSUITS
For me, the last several months have been really busy at home, with family, and at work. My relationship with my photography, social media, and creativity in general continues to change and evolve. I haven’t posted on my primary Instagram account in 2024 and have little interest in doing so.
Over the last 4 months, I have been trying to get my photography archive in better order and print a series of books of my photographs for my own library. We visited family in Pennsylvania during the Christmas holiday week. As soon as we got back to Minnesota, I gathered all of the photographs from the trip and put together a 76 page small square book via Blurb. I really enjoyed pairing and sequencing the photographs. I post processed all of them in black and white with a bit of added grain. I uploaded that book to Blurb on December 31st.
Since then, I have made 2 additional books of photography — HOME: Artist in Residence which I am highlighting below and MEXICO which includes photographs from our 2024 spring break trip a few weeks ago. I will be sure to share some of the spreads from MEXICO with you in an upcoming newsletter.
I am excited to make more books now that I have a better sense of my lightroom catalog. There is something special about holding the printed photographs that brings me great satisfaction - even if only a small group of people get to see and hold the books.
Also in 2024, I continue to play with Adobe Illustrator making 1 poster design each week in a variety of colors. I am still very much a novice in this pursuit but I find it to be a helpful creative outlet after busy, stressful days. I am sharing the design for each week on a second Instagram account, atwentypercentcreative.
Overall, I am doing pretty well, staying out of trouble, and trying hard to be a Twenty Percent Creative throughout 2024.
VISIBILITY FOR INVISIBILITY
Last year around this time, I sent a copy of my photography book, INVISIBILITY, to Ted Forbes. Ted has an excellent Youtube channel called The Art of Photography. In addition to photography focused reviews, photography commentary, and tutorials, Ted does a “Mail Time” series that features mail he has received from his viewers and subscribers. During his November 30th video, Ted featured INVISIBILITY and shared a helpful review of the book. One of my book spreads became the thumbnail image for the video too (how cool is that 🙂). If you haven’t already seen it, here is the link to the video entitled Photographing the Unseen.
RECENT ADDITIONS TO MY PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK LIBRARY
Salt Works — Tom Hegen
The Spirit of Luskentyre — Nigel Danson
Lost in the Beauty of Bad Weather — Christophe Jacrot
WINTER MONTHS WITHOUT WINTER WEATHER
It was quite an unusual winter here in Minnesota. The temps were “warmer” with few days below 0 degree Fahrenheit. We saw very little snow and ice. So little in fact that I didn’t even need to use my gas powered snow blower this year. So little that I am hesitant to store it away for the season despite it being almost May and the temps nearing 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming days. It was definitely the least Minnesota winter I have experienced in my 12 years living in the Twin Cities.
We did have a few days in December and January when the temperature, humidity, and dew point aligned beautifully to produce gorgeous foggy mornings with minimal visibility. Two of these mornings, I woke up before sunrise and spent a few hours photographing some nearby parks, parking lots, and the roads on my way from place to place. It was so quiet, peaceful, and everywhere I looked was a moody, atmospheric scene. I think I like fog photography more than intense light and shadow photography — too bad we don’t see a lot of fog in Minnesota. If you want to see what I saw those mornings, I have a series of foggy morning photographs on my website.
HOME: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
After I finished organizing my lightroom catalog, I set out to make a themed based book of photographs from my archive. I decided to start with photographs I have made at home over the last 6+ years. The result became this 84 page, 10 inch by 8 inch photography book called HOME: Artist in Residence. All of the photographs in this book are presented in black and white with intense light and shadows. They are a mix of candid observations, conceptual still life scenes, and artistic portraits of my kids and our dog, Charlie.
I designed the front cover in Adobe Illustrator (it says home) to pair well with the photograph I chose for the back cover. When I received the book in the mail, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the back cover image wrapped nicely over the edges giving viewers a hint of the pattern on the back cover when viewing the front of the book.
I spent a fair amount of time pairing images for the various spreads. In contrast, I spent little time with the sequencing of the book. I did not want to get hung up on making the book too “perfect” or seeking multiple drafts of the work. I am glad I took this approach as it kept me from overthinking it.
Here are some spreads from the book to give you a sense of the overall appearance of the book.
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Comments, questions, feedback: Please email me directly at: jeff@jeffreymkarp.com
Check out my photography at https://www.jeffreymkarp.com
Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffreymkarp/
Hi Jeff - It's so nice to catch up with you. I often check your IG account and now understand your absence there. It's great to see your unending creativity; which I've always found inspiring. Enjoy your time - Best regards,
Doreen
PS - I can't get enough fog myself!