Stories

One of the most useless questions an adult can ask a kid is –

what do you want to be when you grow up ?

As if at some point you become something…and that’s the end. 

• Michelle Obama, “Becoming”

It was rather irritating.

That nagging voice inside my head that kept suggesting, very gently, very softly that I need to rethink the design and layout of my website.

“But why?”

The nagging voice didn’t bother to respond.

But there it was, popping up a few days later.

Gentle, soft.

And quietly insistent.

The logical mind would point towards the numbers. A few hundred subscribers. A paltry number of monthly visitors. Logic also dictated that a site with no revenue generation in its ambition should really not be too obsessed with itself.

On the other hand, I had created my website three years or so back, not only with the intent of there being a single place where both my images and writings are stored but also a place that depicted where I stand in my journey.

And I had moved.

I think, my images have changed. I am a little clearer about what type of images I want to create and that shows. My writing has changed. I am able to be crisper and yet, more successful in ‘showing instead of telling.”

In both areas, I am trying to embrace simplicity.

My website didn’t reflect that. Looking at my website through this lens, the lens of Simplicity, I realized that the changes that I needed to make were far more than just a cosmetic, visual change.

There was too much of text. The About Me page was, to put it mildly, long.

There were far too many categories in my Portfolio. There was no single theme running through the categorization. Monochrome is truly such a lazy way to categorize. What do the images say other than their lack of colour ? Some of the category names looked, oh so pretentious (I really cringe when I see the category Iki, Shibui, Wabi. To think I was proud of it at one time!)

There were also far too many images inside each category. There was no single thread running through the images. It just seemed to be a random collection of images that I liked where, admittedly, the entry bar was low.

Yes, the website should definitely show simplicity.

How?

I went back to my Purpose which I had written a few years back and something I keep revisiting regularly. My aim was to convey the awe, the emotions that I experience in the wild through both my images and writing.

Could that be a start for identifying the categorization?

Yes. I can try that.

The structure apart, what about the substance?

I am reading Guy Tal’s deeply thought provoking book Be Extraordinary. He talks about beauty in art.

He writes ( I have selectively picked up lines from a page ) :

“Beauty to me is a starting point. Making beautiful art, especially in photography, is not very difficult…. My job as an expressive artist is to add meaning to found aesthetics.

…I propose that the noblest role for beauty in art is not as a singular goal, but as a vehicle for conveying or amplifying meaning.”

That’s an ambitious goal to have for my photography, and I am attempting it, but for now, I used these lines to help me shortlist the frames I wanted up on my website.

They will be those that carry some meaning for me.

I decided to restrict the number of images in each category to around ten.  A viewer should not be presented with a staggering amount of images to go through. That also presents a problem. A lot of favorites will need to be on their way out. Many of my favorite frames have to do with my memory of the moment, of the difficulties that existed while creating that image and not necessarily the image itself. Many won’t make the cut which is a tough call.

However, Stephen King had wisely advised on editing: Kill your Darlings.

And with that, I present my new website – www.ashoknair.in

I hope you find this look a little quieter, a space where you can linger with the more deliberate selections. That the captions that I have spent thought on, provide a little bit of context of how I feel about the frame.

The categorization is nothing but a gentle way of arranging the images. I hope you have the inclination to wander, pause and find your own meaning in my compositions.

Let me know.