I debated whether to do a retrospective this year at all, or perhaps to cut it down to just 6 images. But actually looking back at the output, there’s something to be said about my production when I’m at maximum distraction. Maybe it’ll be useful in the future to use this year’s output as the benchmark year 0, and see how things build up from here again.

Something happened in 2022. Something’s clicked, or maybe distractions fell away. Whatever it was, there’s a stylistic consistency that’s emerged, with the photos I enjoy all having a similar feel. It’s not easy to articulate exactly what it is, but hopefully it’s conspicuous visually.

Repeating last year’s retrospective, I’ve looked through my catalog to identify the 12 images personally significant to me in 2021. 

In numbers, 2021 was less productive than last year, yielding around 1,000 keeper images and 500 worthy of showing others. This is down about 30% from the year before, driven primarily by the fact that I ventured out less locally, shooting mostly on dedicated trips. This is almost certainly a bad thing. Practice makes perfect, whatever that may be. 

When Ansel Adams said “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop,” the word “significant” probably meant world-class, commercially successful, and genre-defining. For my retrospective of 2020, however, I’m going to use a much more forgiving definition, and look back at the 12 photos that were most significant to me personally.