New York City | 2024

These photographs were made in Manhattan in October 2024. Four months feels like a lifetime ago, but it takes whatever time it takes for me to get right with the photos I take while traveling before I’m comfortable processing, editing, and sharing them.

I downloaded the digital images I shot in NYC (and subsequently Tokyo) right after returning from this trip, and I immediately hated them all. So much so that I didn’t revisit them in Lightroom until I’d processed the pile of spent film I returned from the trip with — and it took me two months to get around to that because I just wanted to let it all marinate for a while.

While I was shooting in Manhattan, I was convinced that I was off my game, that my efforts were wasted, that the results would be fit only for the recycling bin.

But I know better — just keep shooting, focus on doing the work, and push through the doubt. A handful of these pictures are halfway decent, I just needed some time to see this with fresh eyes. That distance remedies the issue.

So much of life — especially the digital content sharing life — is about immediacy, instant gratification. In my ongoing effort to create as an act of sanity and self preservation, the last thing I want to feel is pressure for the rapid turnaround of things that don’t actually need to be done right away.

Life is full of tasks and projects that require rapidity, and too few opportunities to slow down and exercise thoughtful consideration. Then again, I could probably spin on these images until I convince myself that none of them are decent enough to share. So here ya go…