A Year in Review || Project 52

This is the longest overdue blog post I will ever write...I hope. For those of you that have been following my work for awhile, you will know that I did a 52 week project in 2012. For those of you that just stumbled across my blog today, now you know. Last year I set out to make one photograph every week for 52 weeks, which is a year, just in case you didn't know ;) You can check out all the photos here & here. 

I'd thought about doing this project for awhile. I'd also thought about doing a 365 project which would mean photographing each day but let's face it...I didn't want to get ahead of myself. A 52 week project seemed a little more achievable. & to my surprise I did achieve it. I'm going to be honest, it was a struggle. Sometimes I didn't feel creative, I didn't want to pick up my camera or everything I shot was just "blah." But sometimes the shots that made me feel boring were the best. Those are the ones that tell the truth.

It's beautiful how much photographs say. Looking through the 52 weeks of 2012 brought so many feelings to my heart. Nostalgia, joy, happiness, sadness, longing. I photographed about weekends in Wisconsin, when we said goodbye to my sweet dog Ginger, when we welcomed a new dog Ellie, amazing sunsets, baseball games in the summer and when the leaves changed color in autumn. The 52 weeks taught me a lot about myself. If I really set my mind to something, I will do it-no matter what it takes. It's interesting to see how much my style as a photographer changed throughout 52 weeks. It's funny to see how much I change in my self-portraits. It's funny how I think "what was I thinking" when I look back on the very first week of project 52. I would do this project over and over again. And I guess I kind of am.

This project pushed me to make something. Create something out of something else. Whether that is a painting, photograph, poem, song...just make something.  

If you've stuck around for the project, thanks. Really. Thanks for going through a whole year with me through photographs. Who knows...maybe it will happen again sometime? :)

Love,

Alison

Week 52 || Project 52

Yes, you read the title of this blog post right. This is week 52. This is the end of the year in photographs. If this is your first time hearing of the 52 week project, let me help you out! This year I set out on an adventure with several photographers around the nation (& the world!) to take a photograph each week. Now, it doesn't sound like much work, but let me tell you it was! Life happens. Sometimes you let the things you love most go. It was a struggle for me to pick up my camera once a week and photograph something that meant something to me. But...

I DID IT!

I'm sad it's over. I'm mostly amazed though. Amazed at the fact that 2012 is over and this project was actually accomplished. I am officially not a quitter. There were weeks when I had absolutely no desire to work on this and weeks when I had too many photos to choose from. But enough with the chatting, let's get to the very last week of Project 52.

The last week of December is the best week of the year. It holds Christmas & a new beginning. This week I woke up for the sun rise [even though the sun didn't really rise...it just got light outside] and went on a photo adventure which doesn't happen much anymore. Like I said, life happens and we drop the things we love the most. There were few times that I woke up super early just to take photographs. But there is nothing like those days. Wake up when the fog is still thick and it's still dark outside. Wake up when the birds aren't even chirping and before your alarm clock wakes you. 

A lot of this project meant going back to my roots. The challenge of photographing for the love of it. Not to take photographs of someone's event or a special moment in their life...but to photograph events in my life and special moments in my life. I spent a lot of time this morning looking up. I don't have much interest in what is right in front of me. The roads look plain and the grass is brown. But if I look up I see the way that the little twigs of the trees paint the sky and the birds flying off. 

So that's it. Week 52. The final week of Project 52. 

I kind of don't want this post to end or the project but I know it has to at some point. It's been an incredibly memorable journey. I've been more inspired this year by this project than ever before. To those of you who have been following this project since the  very beginning, THANK YOU. I cannot tell you how much it means to me. To those of you who started reading this that had no idea what this project is about, THANK YOU. It means the world that you read and viewed this. 

Love to all of you.

[p.s. a summarized post on Project 52 will be up in 2013!]