Index
When I first conceived of the 91 Days project, it was meant to run over the three consecutive months. Which my brain, never great at math, decided was a grand total of 91 days. The calendar disagrees. With few exceptions, most three month runs come in at 92 days. Especially during the summer months. By the time I realized this, I had already built the project around the magic number of 911.
After all, there are seven days in a week and 91 divided by seven gives a nice round 13. Perfect. Until you get to the 92nd day, which, in this case is September 30th, or, the last day of my three consecutive months. So, uhm, ta dah! The 92nd day. And, with that, 91 Days, Volume 2, Summer 2022 is complete. Now what?
Three things. First, below this introduction, you’ll find the first six “bonus” photos - images I really liked but, for whatever reason, didn’t get chosen for that week’s run of pictures. I hope you enjoy them.
Next, I’m putting a small book together. It’ll be self-published through Lulu (dot com) and will come out in November2. It’ll contain all 92 images and some, but not all, of the commentary3. I’ll post here when it’s ready and I hope you might find it interesting enough to buy. Regardless, these posts will remain here, live on SubStack (and Instagram). Which brings me to point three.
Third, 91 Days will continue as a newsletter. This project has meant a lot to me and I’m eternally grateful for everyone’s support. And, because of that, I plan to continue to use this platform to show off my photographic work. But I need a break. So, I’m not quite sure when the newsletter will resume, or what the format will be, but it will resume at some point with more images.
Thank you again. Here are a few bonus images to send us off.
Notes
Photo collections are as much about curation and selection as they are about shooting. The photos above are all images I liked but decided not to run as that day’s image. Here are this week’s notes:
30 September 2022 - “Day 91” - Why not finish with a sunset? To me, this is the real transition between summer and fall where I live - the harvest has been brought in, the tractors are quiet, and the days are shorter and colder than they have been in a while. It’s been a good summer but I’m looking forward to fall.
9 July 2022 - “Roiling Clouds” - If I had realized just how popular all the sky and power line shots would be, I would have just concentrated on those. As it is, if I ever put a themed book together, you’re looking at image number one.
18 July 2022 - “Pizza Time” - Food trucks are relatively new in Japan, corporate ones even newer. Finding one outside my local grocery store was a nice surprise. That said, I have a bunch of photos like this one that are less composed and more just, “hey, look what I saw!” I tried to avoid doing too much of that in this project.
3 August 2022 - “Ghosts” - Anyone with kids or who works with kids knows that, as bad as the pandemic and lock downs were for adults, it was worse for young people. I work at a university and sights like this were too common. This lunch table should have had the umbrella open and a group of students having fun. Should have.
6 August 2022 - “Night” - Japan has very strict privacy laws regarding who can be photographed4 and when. As a result, you may have noticed that there are very few people in this project; I tried to avoid any people in my shots unless I was sure I was within the boundaries of both the law and ethic and that the people either gave permission or were generally unidentifiable.
5 September 2022 - “Stationary” - My local station, at night. It’s not quite as ghostly in real-life as it appears on camera. But, combine different types of light with a bit of mist and a high ISO and, well, this is what you get. Still, I like the composition and someday, I’ll do it better.
15 September 2022 - “Later” - Nothing better encapsulates the duality of modern photography better than shots like this: well-composed but badly exposed, dynamic but less than perfectly clear. Is it a good photo? I like to think so. Is it good photography? I hope so.
AKA why you should always triple-check your math before doing anything.
Fingers crossed.
I’m currently re-writing it to focus more on the images and less on my myriad and sundry neuroses.
It’s a constant frustration for those of us who live here to see those laws being broken by tourists and “short-timers.”
Every time a friend came to visit me in Japan, I had to endure seeing them take countless pictures of random people. The most uncomfortable was when they took pictures of geishas in Kyoto... While knowing it was forbidden
In any case, congrats on finishing the project! Looking forward to seeing how the book will turn out and how the next edition will be!
Congratulations Joel, your project has given me a few ideas to try on my own. But I appreciate your consistently hitting the publishing button. The book will be something to reflect upon.