Dear Friends,
I hope you are having a great weekend — full of rest, relaxation, good food, and laughter. Minneapolis is gorgeous today. It feels like our first introduction to fall - my favorite season of the year. The conditions are perfect for quiet time at the lake or an impromptu photowalk. Before I try to make that plan a reality, I am pleased to share Issue #16 of A Twenty Percent Creative with you. Please enjoy and best wishes for a great week ahead!!
Warm regards,
Jeff
FROM MY PHONE’S CAMERA
I have sprinkled a few visual notes throughout this issue that I made this week with my iPhone SE.
WHAT I’M WORKING ON
My week has been defined by 3 fresh starts.
Fresh start with my nutrition. I am 8 days into eating a low carb, vegetarian diet - one approach to tackle my pandemic weight gain. If you have any recommendations for tasty recipes, I would love to learn more about them via email or in the comments below.
Fresh start with my sleep. I am trying to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night. I can’t recall a time I consistently got 7 hours or more of sleep each night. If I can keep it up, I may need to change the name of this newsletter to “A Fifteen Percent Creative” to account for the extra hours devoted to sleep;)
Fresh start in my job. I returned to treating the complex dental health needs of children in the hospital operating suites. It has been a few years since I have gotten to work in this setting. While the days can be long, I enjoy working with my trainees in this environment and having the opportunity to catch up on things between procedures.
I don’t have any fresh starts in mind for my photography or illustrations. I am more interested in bringing my existing work into physical forms. I am determined to launch a print store before the end of 2022 and to make a book of my photos from 2022. It is going to be a fun finish to the year.
**What have you been working on this week? Any fresh starts for you? I would enjoy reading about them.**
INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK
I am a new fan of Isadora Kosofsky.
Yesterday, I was introduced to her work while listening to Ed Kashi’s episode of The Candid Frame. After a solid 2 hours of exploring Isadora’s work in various media, Isadora made quite an impression on me. She is a talented, fascinating, and extremely well spoken documentary photographer with a tremendous portfolio and a wise-beyond-her-years perspective on the world. While doing afternoon projects around the house, I listened to her April 2020 conversation with Ibarionex Perello on The Candid Frame Episode #511. Her career is remarkable and inspirational especially as her first documentary photography project involving hospice care started at age 13. Isadora’s approach to her work as a documentarian is tremendous — she calls it being “radically present” and “listening with all of your senses.” Isadora makes me want to start a documentary project right away.
Isadora’s “Senior Love Triangle” caught my attention on her Instagram page and her website, https://isadorakosofsky.com. Her TED talk called “Intimate photos of a senior love triangle” is worth watching too. Senior Love Triangle was eventually printed as a book by Kehrer Verlag. The publisher’s website has a short video showing a preview of the layout of the book.
NOTE: There is a lot to learn in the book layout video about selection of photographs for telling stories across two page spreads.
To finish my Isadora deep dive, I listened to her commentary on the Good Grief podcast called “What I’ve tried to do is surrender to grief.”
IN MY HEADPHONES
I just started listening to Evan Puschak’s book, “Escape Into Meaning: Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions.” His essay, Ode to Public Benches, resonates as an observer and street photographer. Evan is the creator responsible for the Nerdwriter1 channel on Youtube.
VIDEOS I’VE WATCHED THIS WEEK
How I’m turning my photography into works of art — Thomas Heaton on Youtube
Launching my online art shop + how you can too + making art prints at home — Ashleigh King on Youtube
If you are enjoying A Twenty Percent Creative, please consider sharing the newsletter with your family and friends.
I welcome feedback about the newsletter.
Please email me directly at: jeff@jeffreymkarp.com
Instagram: @jeffreymkarp
Vero: @jeffreymkarp
This was a great read to close a week and for a brand new start of new one; pretty inspirational about motivating to think about new starts that can have positive impact on our lives. Loved all the photographs, especially the one with Charlie was impressive. Thanks again!!