MAD Friends
Creativity, friendship, and learning along the way
Over the years, I think I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had friends and met people who, in one way or another, have supported my creative explorations and trusted my work.
The photos for today’s story come from a time when I felt I was starting my transition from design into photography, and beginning to take it more seriously.
By then, I had done a lot of personal work, mostly as a hobby. I had tried a few wedding shoots and quickly realised it wasn’t for me. I enjoy photography when I have time to think, to prepare, and to sit with the image. Weddings felt too fast paced for my liking. Around that time, I started exploring product and food photography instead, and that side of photography began to resonate with me more.
I was lucky to have Natalia, a good friend I met at uni, who has supported my creative endeavours across different stages, design, photography, and video. Back then, around ten years ago, she was already working in the food industry. Together, we made some genuinely good work. There were also my personal hiccups, like the time I suggested we make a few videos and they turned out awful. So bad that I don’t even have a copy of them. Very embarrassing. Still, she always said, “No, they look great.”
At the time, she was helping food entrepreneurs create and establish their brands and businesses, and she very kindly recommended me to them to produce imagery for their projects.
With a basic understanding of photography, but a lot of energy and inspiration, I jumped straight in. I didn’t know it then, but those early jobs and explorations would end up helping me take photography more seriously, and lead me towards a side of photography I truly enjoyed.
Food photography taught me a lot. Composition. Natural light. A bit of staging. Things that would later become the foundation of what I would go on to do years later.
So with this story, I wanted to look back at how my creative journey has unfolded over the last ten plus years, but also to thank the people who trusted me along the way. Especially Natalia, who has been part of this journey since uni and supported me all the way through.
I still smile thinking about trading semiotic essays for flash projects, working on ethical burritos and consciously packaged Maccas, where you scored a 4.9 and I walked away with a very generous 2.5. Bloody aesthetics teacher.
Maybe one day we’ll finally get those videos right.
Footnote
This is the last story of the year. Thirty five in total so far.
I’m still not entirely sure what my Japan trip did to me. I know for certain that writing is not really my thing, and yet here I am, consistently writing these stories every week since then.
Sometimes I feel they’re good. Sometimes I feel I talk too much. Sometimes I don’t feel it at all, but I still do it. Because what matters, I think, is showing up.
There’s a Japanese saying that keeps coming back to me. 努力は才能に勝る, Doryoku wa sainō ni masaru. Effort is stronger than talent. You don’t need to be particularly skilled if you’re consistent enough.
I’m not yet sure if I’ll take all of January off from writing. But I do know that the first story of next year will be about a time I worked on a video for Warner Music without actually knowing what I was meant to do. No briefing. Literally none. I delivered the wrong thing.
Because why not start the year with the left foot. Just kidding. I’m left handed too.
