Fieldnotes

2022 was one of the most rewarding, creative, and productive periods of my life in recent years. I’ve written end-of-year reviews of my creative work for the past few years. In keeping with tradition, below are my reflections on 2022 and my plans for 2023. Reflections & plans Sabbatical work After two years of delays, I finally had a semester-long sabbatical from teaching. My sabbatical took me to Bolivia and Peru for 30 days, where I did research for my ongoing mountains project and took photos for a photobook project I’m working on....

I went on sabbatical during the fall 2022 semester. I am a professor at a school in Orlando, and the time away from teaching and administrative duties was much needed. It gave me the gift of time and space to concentrate on my creative work. You’d be forgiven for finding the idea of doing creative work during a sabbatical oxymoronic. After all, the biblical sabbath is associated with the abstinence of creative work....

Alys Tomlinson is a London-based photographer. She joins us today to discuss long-term projects, research, and storytelling in her photography. Her most recent project Gli Isolani documents the traditional costumes and masks worn during festivals and celebrations on the islands of the Venetian lagoon, Sicily. and Sardinia. Photographs from Gli Isolani have been published by GOST and shown at HackelBury Fine Art Gallery in London from 7 September until 29 October 2022....

It goes without saying that creating a photobook with words is unlike creating a photobook without them. And it is also unlike creating a wordbook without photos. A book with words and images is its own beast. It is a chimera, a hybrid monster that you should respect and listen to if one confronts you. Hi. I’m Jeremy Bassetti, and I’ve caught a chimera by its tail. Which is to say, I’m working on a photobook with words....

It was a cold, December day when I strolled into a bookstore in France and ran my fingers along the spines of the books in the photography section. My finger stopped on the steel-grey spine of Sergio Larrain’s book Londres, 1959, which I slid off the shelf and thumbed through. As I looked at his enigmatic, contrasty photographs of London — shot on black-and-white film, of course — a wave of inspiration overcame me....