Thanks to my ongoing obsession with Austin Kleon, I purchased a rubber stamp this week. My idea was to get something I could use to mark my working photos. Especially since my Japan photo book completely sold out this week, I wanted to try to reappropriate the proof prints in some way. I went to a local shop near my studio, and the next day I had my “PROOF” rubber stamp.

It’s a curious word, proof. Photographers or printers use it to denote a working version of a print; something not intended to be the final work to be seen, shared or sold. However, the word also has there, nicer, broader meanings and uses. Evidence for one. A photo, in many ways, is proof, isn’t it? Evidence that I was somewhere, I saw this thing, and I documented it photographically, thus providing proof of… what? It’s existence? My existence? All of this and more?

I then started to think about proof in an even broader sense. The rubber stamp could be used to validate, to empower, to prop up, to sway a viewer. The bold red ink, the all caps san serif typeface, set in 42pt Helvetica Bold; it’s screams of validation. Of existence. PROOF.

I think I’ll be using this stamp much more than I originally intended.

I recently stumbled down a very specific podcast rabbit hole. I happened upon an interview with Austin Kleon, who, if you don’t know, is the author of the creative “self-help” book called “Steal Like An Artist.” His book made waves upon its release, and he’s gone on to produce a string of similar books in the same vein, along with a pretty thorough online presence. After listening to the first interview, I searched Apple podcasts and found that he is a pretty regular presence in the podcastsphere. So I dove in and listened to maybe three or four more interviews. Then I read his first book, and recently just finished his latest “Keep Going.” Don’t paint me as a fanboy, or a creepy obsessive, please. At the same time, something obviously clicked when I heard Kleon’s no bullshit, unapologetic, unpretentious take on being creative. Not “a” creative, mind you (fuck off, Richard Florida.)

One of the biggest takeaways from this recent obsession has been incorporating daily writing into my creative practice. Not a journal or a diary, per se, but a short, focussed, one page, stream of consciousness exercise to get my day started. In some ways, it feels a bit like improv… I usually start with a word as a “prompt” that gets my mind wandering on a specific path. Abstract thoughts are ok, unrelated words come up. I look at this practice as sowing seeds for further exploration… at some point… or maybe never. The important thing is that I write it down. Why? Lest I forget. Perhaps the same reason I take photographs. Lest I forget. Small things, small impressions, a specific time, a specific feeling. Something concrete to remind me of the NOW. Time flies, emotions change, seasons come and go, people live and die, we get older, our memories start to fail. Create now… lest we forget.