A summer break in glue and ink

Rediscovering an old love for the analogue process

Hey friends, how’s your summer been so far?

I’ve been keeping myself out of any internet related activities the last couple of weeks, and it felt like a complete and long needed necessity. In this newsletter I want to give you a short and sweet heads up on the things that happened and the things to come.

The last couple of weeks where a whirlwind between moving houses and getting accustomed and comfortable in a new city as a family. We even started a little gardening project behind our house and got to know our neighbors well, occasionally drinking in the garden and dipping our toes in tiny pools with the kids.

All the moving related stuff happened between two campaigns, the latter we shot in Prague over the course of 4 weeks, including pre- and postproduction. After this exhausting, exciting, intense time with a great team that I dearly miss (speaking about post-shoot depression here. Maybe in a future issue…) I needed a break to wrap my head around what happens next.

I’ve spent a good deal of time wandering the various playgrounds and beer-gardens in the city with my kid, deleted Instagram off my phone for a while, finished all the editing, bought/read some books (full list of recommendations coming) and tried to get back into the more creative and playful state where no client dictates the next step.

When I was studying graphic design until 12 years ago I always kept a sketchbook, I tried to pick up this habit throughout this last years working as a photographer but it never stuck. But this time it was different. It was a deeply soothing experience to draw again, to work with my own photos in collages, to write down ideas and to explore what my mind was coming up with. It was radical, and I got obsessed. And i bought a ton of drawing supplies. By a ton i mean…a ton. I tried different pencils, paper, bought two printers, stickers and a shitload of tape.

Filling my sketchbooks, the playtime around it, the trial and error and pure joy to see it getting thicker and thicker helps me a lot recalibrate, to make mistakes without regret, to explore new ways. In the purest sense it’s the antidote to the epidemic of perfectionism. And ultimately it got me moving on with personal photographic projects that feel like me, without the pressure of being portfolio-material.

Here’s an annoyingly fast GIF of some select pages, just to distract you from your reading experience (it’s huge and takes a while to load)

At some point I’m going to walk you through the pages in detail and give you a little glimpse into the process. But for now, I decided to keep it short and sweet…as promised.

And I also decided to publish an issue of this newsletter every two weeks from now on. Hold me accountable!

Thanks for sticking around and take care, see you in two weeks.

😘

Ramon

p.s. Here’s a playlist for you, curated by the great polish composer Hania Rani to celebrate the release of her album “Music for Film and Theatre”. This will get you stuck for hours in a semi-meditative state. Perfect for working in your sketchbook.