Monthly Street Challenge in 2022

At the beginning of 2022, I embarked on a personal challenge to consistently capture photos and share a selected few each month on my website. The purpose behind this endeavor was to steadily work towards a goal and experience a sense of achievement. Whenever I stepped out, I made sure to have a camera with me, and for this challenge, I chose the Ricoh GR3 as my companion. While it may not match the image quality of interchangeable lens cameras, its portability perfectly suited the challenge. I believed that having two pictures with noise was better than having one picture with high sharpness. So I enthusiastically dove into the task of gathering a collection of photos from various situations and places. In my journey, I have discovered the beauty of repetition and consistency. The commitment to showing up every day and putting in the effort holds more beauty than achieving excellence sporadically. Even if the outcome may not always be remarkable, the attitude of working diligently each day deserves admiration. There is a life motto that resonates with me: "It's better to steadily do something, even if it's imperfect, than to do it exceptionally well." Aesthetically consistency holds great value too. Life can often seem absurd. We predetermine our purpose and invite tragedy when we lose sight of it. When our purpose becomes materialistic or driven by social values, our own agency becomes jeopardized. To overcome the futility that sometimes engulfs us, we must accept life as a categorical imperative. We acknowledge and embrace the inherent meaninglessness that exists. In this context, I find myself drawn to the sublime nature of Sisyphus, forever pushing the rock uphill. With my snap camera in hand, I become a modern-day Sisyphus. I wander the streets not solely to capture outstanding images, but for the act of taking pictures itself.