Do you ever lose your Phojo? Phojo, for the people scratching their heads, is photographic mojo. Do you ever wonder where the next photo is coming from? I see it all the time on photographic forums and Flickr. People pleading for inspiration. They feel they have lost their phojo and fear it may never come back. I admit, it has happened to me on many occasions.
So often, when people bare their souls on the interwebs, they get such a varied range of advice, it must be hard to know where to start. But, in one of those cyber oddities that are all to rare these days, when people claim to have lost their phojo, I hear the same piece of advice. “Have you tried the 365/52 projects?” Again, if you are wondering, they are projects on Flickr. The 365 group and the 52 weeks group are both based around a similar premise. Take a self portrait either every day for a year, or every week for a year. Easy. Well, not so easy it turns out.
Imagine, every day, you have to take a photo of yourself. That’s, every single day for a year! This from dictionary.com. Narcissism describes the trait of excessive self-love, based on self-image or ego. Now I am not saying that the thousands of people who are involved in the 365 project are in love with themselves, but I bet their aren’t too many emos doing it either. I really don’t think I have the head for the 365 project. So, how about the 52 week project. Surely, even I can manage one self portrait per week for a year. Or can I? Do I want 52 photos of me through out the year? I doubt even my darling wife would! But, I need a challenge, so, as of July 1, I am into it. The 365 project is just too damned daunting for me, but I reckon I can manage the 52 week project.
To spice things up even more, I am going to try and make it a charity event. I am not 100% sure how I can manage this at the moment, but I will give it some thought over the next fortnight and keep people advised. I will look into some childrens charities and see what would be the best one to support.
Watch this space!