Why are we here?

No, this is not going to be a piece on existentialism, but rather an explanation of why I made this site and why it’s good that you are here!

I have been photographing for as long as I remember myself but since 2010 things took a more serious turn, as I began shooting more and with a purpose. I also started indexing what I shoot and certain themes emerged that I hadn’t even realised existed before. 

Through my years of shooting I decided on a workflow that works for me and it goes something like this: I shoot for a month and let the images rest until the end of said month without so much as looking at them a second time. This way, I get a bit more detached from my images (although I do still consider them my children…) and I only work on them when the month is over. The distilled result is a handful of images that fit in the broad categories that interest me and I proceed to post them on social media, especially on facebook and partially on some photographic sites like 500px, flickr, dpreview and others.

In the meantime, I am shooting with my smartphone as well and some of these images get posted on instagram, where you can see them – they are all square (an instagram purist if you will) and post processed on the spot through the app itself.

On top of this, I sometimes get the urge to shoot what I call a Special Project (I guess it sounds more grandiose than it is) and I post these images separately under different albums. Through the years, I realised I am drawn to city / street life and street art, so I have shot some of that and also to Urban Exploration (uex), so I have done a bit of that too.

Furthermore, since 2016 I have participated in what became one of the best photographic experiences of my life, the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge, where one shoots one image per week on a predetermined theme. I did that diligently for 3 years until work caught up with me in 2019 and I never finished that challenge; something that doesn’t sit very well with my OCD, but OWELL…

For the longest time, I have wanted to put up a photo site and showcase my work for people to see and (hopefully) enjoy. Of course, one can still do this on facebook, where there are infinitely more images than on this website – actually I think that I have selected about 10% of the images in facebook for the site, so if you like what you see, there is a lot more where this came from. I have kept the same categorization on the main albums (Flora, Fauna, My Kind of People, Natural Landscapes and Skies, Human Stain, Pop and Abstract, Live Performances) so that you don’t have to browse purposelessly for longer than you would like.

So, why do it? I reckon that the person who will take the time to wonder to this neck of the web woods, is a different beast than the one who will only browse facebook. Someone who will take the time to visit a photography site with no other distractions is a genuine lover of the art and, as such, an interesting visitor, whose opinion is greatly valued. That’s why!

I called it WriteLight – pun intended. Those who know me, know that it would have to be something like that:) The essence of photography is writing with light, using light and its absence to record something, real or perceived. Of course it has to be the “right” light, get it, get it? I knew you would. 

Last, but not least, this particular page will host my views on photography related issues, a wide ranging theme that may be of interest to an audience larger than one (me!). I figured, it’s a big world, there’s bound to be others like me out there;)

Enjoy and, should you feel so inclined, please do not hesitate to contact me with your opinion on my images!