We all have dreams and goals in life, right? Ever since we were little kids, we’re asked “What do you want to do when you grow up?” Our teachers would ask, moms and dads would ask, hell our friends even ask us at certain periods of growing up. I’ve honestly never known what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, or where I would even start.
Now, I’d love to tell you that this is a “happily ever after story”, about how I finally narrowed down what I want to be doing when I “grow up”. But alas, I do not. I know that I’ve been more focused on photography and learning how to make a career of it, more than anything else in my entire life. But, I still don’t know what direction to go with it, how to get to a stable place within photography, or even if I’m more into photography or having it printed and talking about it. I feel like I’m destined to be in a constant state of searching, never knowing or landing on what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life. I do however have hope that I’ve found something that’ll stay with me for the rest of my life (whether it makes me a living or not).
“Solo Hope”
Shot on September 16th 2022, in downtown Arlington Washington, on Olympic Avenue.
A few years back, I think about 12-13 years actually, I use to live in Arlington with a buddy of mine (and for a short time, with a girlfriend as well). I love Arlington for how quite it is, still keeping its old small farm town charm, and not being phased or influenced by the growth of surrounding towns, just doing its own thing instead. I lived a couple streets East of Olympic Ave, and would frequently walk to the park downtown to think, especially when my girlfriend at the time and myself parted ways. It was actually while sitting on that bench one day, looking out and thinking about current (to the times) events, that I saw someone with a camera taking pictures of their dog running around, and I thought “I wouldn’t mind taking up photography to clear my mind”. Next thing I knew, I was at Best Buy picking up a Canon PowerShot. If you don’t know the significance of that very specific camera I speak of, don’t worry, it’s the camera that I found again in 2021 and picked right back up to shoot photography with, before moving to a more current entry professional Sony A7iii model.
When I captured “Solo Hope” I was out on yet another Midnight Photography walk, this time trying my hands at capturing those walks with my GoPro, so that I could showcase them on YouTube (spoiler alert, it didn’t go that great, but I came away with great photos and a good learning experience too). I’d already done walks around Bellevue, Seattle, Everett and Marysville, and I was thinking about new places to hit up when Arlington popped into my brain. If you’d like to watch the video, you can check it out here - https://youtu.be/gaYQDn2YL1a
The actual location where “Solo Hope” was shot at, use to be the old Olympic Theater, situated directly across the street from that park bench I’d go sit and think. It’s no surprise that so many things seem to link themselves in my life, considering that I’ve lived my entire life within a 30 mile radius of where I was born. But I do think it’s pretty cool to reminisce about places in time (good and bad), and connect them to the photos I take. Randomly seeing a sign that reads HOPE in a window, behind a single chair and table set up, in a place I frequented so many years ago during darker times, and meant nothing to me at the time I shot it until recently, is kind of strange. But, like I talked about in my last blog post, as I sit here and write about these photos, they seem to bring to life new meaning (to me anyway).
My HOPE for my photography future is to become a full time photographer, printer, writer, and publisher. Not just of my own work, but possibly to help other photographers along their journey as well. Hope and an openness to whatever opportunities might come my way have already given me a pretty damn amazing adventure so far, let’s see where it goes from here.
As always, I hope you enjoy these posts and the photos I attach to them. If you’d like to continue this, or any other conversation, I’d love to talk with you and take inspiration for future writings. Feel free to email me at grimlockmedia@gmail.com
Catch y’all later.
Andrew Hoyle - Grimlock Media
