A sudden 1-night, 2-day business trip to Taiwan.
I left home at 4 a.m. and took the 8 a.m. flight. After arriving in Taiwan,
I had lunch and headed straight to the filming location.
I finished the client work after 9 p.m.,
had dinner, and returned to the hotel around midnight.
The next morning, after a slightly luxurious hotel breakfast— with a mix of fatigue and lingering adrenaline— I wandered the city with my camera in hand.
My compact digital camera is currently in for repair, so I couldn’t bring it this time.
Instead, I used my work setup: the Sony α9II paired with the Sigma 28–45mm.
For street photography, this setup is honestly too big and too heavy.
But strangely enough— and partly because I simply love Taiwan— I rediscovered how fun street photography can be.
Rather than using the photos from this trip,
I’m thinking of compiling images from my past visits into two or three small books and turning them into a zine.
A personal photo book doesn’t sell, regardless of the era. And honestly, I don’t mind if it doesn’t sell at all.
Still, I believe photography only truly exists when someone sees it.
Even without social media, I want my work to reach the people who are meant to see it— in some form.
When client work gets busy, I end up just chasing deadlines, and my artistic pursuits fall behind.
Starting next year, I want to work on this little by little.
Because:
- I don’t want to forget my initial impulse
- Client work will eventually disappear
That’s what it comes down to.
“Client work will eventually disappear.”
More precisely, I think it’s that I don’t find my identity there.
But if you ask whether my personal photos— the ones taken outside of work— hold any identity, I’m not sure I can say they do.
Photography is, at its core, nothing more than a copy of the phenomenon before my eyes. It’s complicated.
And yet, I feel that a part of it acts as a mirror reflecting myself.
Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t really know. But I do know this:
It becomes a dialogue with myself, and I want to keep that dialogue alive.
