Something strange happened at the end of 2022. The whole year, in fact the many years previous to that as well, I had been excitedly motivated to take photos, and make videos, and write about things.
Then, almost like the flip of a switch that motivation stopped.
My camera seemed like a burden. The thought of making a video felt laborious instead of engaging and exciting. Almost immediately my Instagram feed ground to a halt.
I couldn’t understand this, nor did I feel much motivation to push through it and just keep trying. I think I just needed a break.
In some ways it felt to me like I had taken a picture of everything I could within my day to day world: The airplane. The airplane with people. The villages we fly to. The airstrips. And so on. My photographer eye was seeing less and less ‘new’ stuff, and was feeling strained with trying to make the normal stuff look different.
Likewise with the videos I had enjoyed making. This was a pandemic project that I really enjoyed and had a lot of fun with. But it’s a lot of work, and once I had filmed footage from the majority of our airstrips, once again I wasn’t seeing much that would warrant more content.
I think there may be a tendency in our modern world to create for the sake of it. Data is unlimited. Space to publish is unlimited. And the tendency for creative arts is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.
I think I prefer a more limited, minimalist approach. Things should be created because they are bursting from your brain and need to be in the world. Some people are gifted with having a lot bursting from their creative minds. Others are slower, but no less inspiring.
In a similar way to all of this, I need to be honest and tell you that the last few times I’ve seen a reminder to send out a newsletter, I’ve snoozed it. Not for lack of appreciation for people wanting to know how and what we are doing, or for the support we get, but literally just because I haven’t known what to write.
The thing is, in the first few years working in the field we are in, there is a lot of new and interesting stuff to share. The first flight I did, or the time I had crazy weather and a medical patient on board. Or what life in rural Lesotho is like with a toddler (thinking back to 2016). There’s a lot to share. Most of it funny, interesting or thought provoking. But after 7 years, it feels harder to find those kinds of things to share. Not because they have stopped happening, but because we can’t think of another way to ‘frame this picture and make it still interesting to look at,’ to continue my photo analogy.
I also know that people don’t expect to be wow’d every time we send out a newsletter. Sometimes maybe you just wanna know that everything is good and that we are doing well. I know that. But I pressure myself into wanting it to be worthy of a national newspaper column.
Think of this post, then, as a picture of us standing on a mountain in Lesotho, with an airplane behind. You have seen it before. Nothing looks too different. Except that the photo is recent, Jane is taller, and we look a little older and wiser.
