Looking back on little obsessions of mine

 It must be said: I hyperfixate. When I was 10 it was tec-decks and bakugan, then at 14 I started guitar and never put it down. At 18 it was the mandolin, and at the ripe young age of 20 I bought my first film camera.

I started taking pictures when my girlfriend came to visit me in Geneva, and she brought her Nikon FE SLR with a 50mm lens. Together we took a train up into the Bernese Oberland and walked through bucolic valleys hand in hand. It's strange to think that photography has only been in my life for the better part of a year, but I've devoted so much time, energy, and money to it.

I celebrated my one year anniversary with Maddy about 20 days ago, and I want to go back through the photos we took during that trip and reminisce a little bit.

My first pictures were almost all in color. Even the black and white photos were taken with ilford xp2 color negative black and white film that Maddy brought from Columbus OH. In these first pictures, a lot of the framing is rather haphazard and careless. I focused a lot more on the subject matter and much less on the process. At that point I had not yet discovered my own style or my love for black and white film.

Contrast this with my present work, which is very granular and manual, full of flaws and mechanical failures, and I think the love of photography itself has really burgeoned.

When I look back on photos taken only about 8 months ago, and I hear about the photographers I admire who have been taking pictures for decades, I can't help but be very excited about the future.