2021: Twelve Significant Images

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.

Process-wise, year 3 was less about explicitly learning new skills, and much more about just doing. I acquired little new gear, experimented less with brand new techniques, and focused more on the act of production itself. It was liberating to stick to what you have and know, and there’s much more to learn beyond the hard skills of photography.

All-in-all, a year with decent results. Progress, again, I think. But I could have and should have produced more.

I’d love to hear what you think about the images too. Please share your feedback in the comments, or contact me @arthurkaneko on IG.

Here’re my 12 personally significant images from 2021:

Image 1: Black Birds Perch

While difficult to pull off deliberately, photos with a high degree of ambiguity stick with me.

Is this image of sky or ocean? Sunrise or sunset? Of decay or a return to nature?

Is it apocalyptic or hopeful?

Image 2: Rocks Along Sonoma Coast

It’s exceedingly difficult to do justice to a location with a single image, but I feel this image was as successful as I got in 2021. I spent a full day hiking up and down the coastline trying to find THE composition. Of course, the one I ended up with was the very first candidate I found, but nothing could beat its almost cartological legibility.

If only it were this straightforward every time..

Image 3: Branches in Sand

Hasselblad 500 C/M, Zeiss 80mm f/2.8, Fuji Provia 100F

After days of rushing around Death Valley back in the spring, making what were, in retrospect, mostly unsatisfying images, I knew the moment I found the scene that this would be the most important image I’d make that trip.

Its personal significance is not of it’s quality, but it’s qualities: 1) it’s compositionally simple and understated, 2) it possesses detail that relates the reality of the scene, and 3) it has some conceptual or emotional content beyond “Hey look, it’s pretty!”

These qualities, although not exclusively, are what I’m looking for in my shots. You’ll hopefully see them repeated below.

Image 4: Sawtooth Hail

In contrast to street, wildlife or journalistic photography, landscape photography in particular is positioned as a craft of careful planning and patience, and less about reaction time. Once in a while though, like when hail turns a glassy lake surface into pure chaos, it’s all about capturing a fleeting moment in time.

Image 5: Yellow Aglow

You’ve probably experienced the disappointment of taking a photo that looks nothing like the scene through your eyes. A big part of making good images is knowing when what you see will translate to a photograph well, and when they won’t.

This cluster of yellow flowers I found in the Bruneau Dunes in Idaho looked like they were positively glowing in the day’s final light. I was not expecting the image, shot on film no less, to convey that glow so effectively.

Image 6: Late Spring Drifts

A late spring snow drifted through the high deserts and meadows of Idaho and Oregon, dusting the hills already covered in wildflowers.

An image I couldn’t stop thinking about both in and after making it.

Image 7: Golden Gates

Film photography has become a more natural part of my workflow this year, playing an important complementary role to my digital process. Unlike digital, optimized for maximum flexibility and control, my analog set-up is deliberately constrained.

Specifically, I shoot one lens, a single 50mm equivalent prime, in only the square format, on just two film stocks: Provia 100F and Portra 400.

I lug all of this around because it helps me see and make images I wouldn’t make otherwise, and this one is a good example. I technically could make an equivalent-ish image on my digital set-up, but as any film shooter knows, could and would are not always the same.

Now I just need to get in shape to carry around all this weight.

Image 8: Saguaro Heat

The harshest conditions I shot in this year was this session in Arizona, during a heatwave that shot temperatures up to a literally dizzying 120F or 48C. Limiting myself to 30 minutes outdoors at a time, I even had to protect my film by storing them in a thermos.

Shooting in the freezing cold is hard. Shooting in extreme heat borders stupid.

Image 9: Found at Sea

On a foggy beach one afternoon, volleyball sized jellyfish were getting shattered against packed sand by the crashing surf. Strewn across the shoreline were these ethereal, gruesome gems.

Image 10: Mono Lake Green

Wildfires were once again everywhere in 2021, and it made for an interesting addition to many images. Here, at Mono Lake, the smoke had the effect of giving sunlight an unearthly warmth, and blending the green lake and whiteout sky into a smooth gradient. A distant peak floats in its midst.

Image 11: Foothill House Portfolio - Guest Bath

Unlike 2020, I focused almost all my energy this year towards landscape photography. The one exception was an architecture shoot I did for an architect who asked me to shoot a remodel he oversaw. I’ve always enjoyed shooting buildings, but a residential property for a portfolio was a whole new challenge.

After 3 separate shoots and many hours of post-processing, I’m fairly happy with the results. Not an inspiration for a career change, but closely collaborating with an artist/craftsperson is something I’ll seek out in the future.

You can see the full set here.

Image 12: El Capitan Reflection

Yosemite is a landscape photography cliche that’s undoubtedly over-photographed. Despite this, in 2021, I made four visits total, and it doesn’t help that I spent most of my time on the Valley floor, one of the most recognizable landscapes in the U.S.

What’s the point? In a twisted way, I think if I can find great images in Yosemite Valley, not immediately recognizable as Yosemite, I can make great images anywhere.

Just grateful for the incredible luxury of getting to practice in one of the most spectacular natural places in the world.

For regular updates on my work, follow @arthurkaneko and on IG