For a variety of personal reasons (health, mental health, family, dayjob, etc.), I’ve pretty much dropped out of the blogosphere, and in particular the photoblogosphere, over the last several months. This happens sometimes with me. It probably won’t stop happening.
Things in my life have eased up a little, and I’m trying to get back in touch with the photo world. I posted something new here for the first time in forever, and I’m catching up on some fraction of the stuff that’s been clogging my Newsblur and Instapaper accounts.
As I started going through these feeds, I was initially feeling super guilty about not having tried to keep up. I mean, even though I legitimately was not able to write anything meaningful during that time period, I didn’t ever stop reading — so why wasn’t I reading about photography? I was reading plenty of stuff that is less important to me.
As I read further, I began to observe a surge of anxiety and mental fatigue. So I tried to follow closely what was happening in my mind as I read, and I came back with a very minor, but useful, epiphany:
Looking at a lot of photos, and it's surprisingly difficult. And they're not difficult photos, it's just…I dunno.
— Nick (@kukkurovaca) August 20, 2014
I think part of the reason why I sometimes go completely dark re: the photoblogosphere is so that I can shut down the photo part of my brain
— Nick (@kukkurovaca) August 20, 2014
b/c that's high-bandwidth shit, and a lot of it is stuff that you have to feel about in order to think about, so I have to take care w/it.
— Nick (@kukkurovaca) August 20, 2014
Plus, I often can't process it without writing about it — without working through it, which is hard work, and requires time.
— Nick (@kukkurovaca) August 20, 2014
(This is the main reason I blog about photography.)
— Nick (@kukkurovaca) August 20, 2014
So, when I don't have the time (or mental/emotional spare resources) to write about photography, that sort of means I can't read about it.
— Nick (@kukkurovaca) August 20, 2014