This Is My Love Letter to Life | Our 2021 On Film
2021
Never wise
Never won
Until the beat of the drum
Wake to warm hands of the sun
That reach into blood & tissue
To dry the tears
Of joy
That you are mine
Never wise
But won.
For Paige & Casey
Remember those days as a kid when you would pull the dusty family photo albums from the shelf? Photography was a material thing. Something tangible. Something that meant more than phone screens, likes & shares. There's an irony that I'm writing about this on my blog. You're probably reading it on a phone. I've shot film for a long time on & off. But it was with the birth of my son & that soulful ache of new life that I felt the importance of documenting not just him but his world. My world. & all of the things that make it so.
Film for me is full of romanticism. It is perfectly imperfect just like life itself. This past year I have shot more personal work on film than I have on digital. 42 Rolls to be precise. That is testament to my love of the medium. Not only have I photographed using 35mm film & movies on Super 8 but I've also started home developing black & white myself. As I'm writing this today I'm about to get delivery of a Sous Vide so I can start doing colour film too. I won't say shooting film has brought back my love of photography as that has always existed no matter what tool I'm using for the job. What I will say however, is it has allowed me to separate my personal affinity with photography from my work affinity.
To celebrate that I started a new personal account on instagram aka ThisIsMyLoveLetterToLife. My body of work posted there as infrequently as it may be serves as a therapy of sorts. It allows me to celebrate that I am more than just a wedding photographer. My life is greater than work.
Consider this my first in a yearly look back on my life away from Shutter Go Click Photography. All taken on a mixture of 35mm & Super 8 film.
Ryan XO
Wanna check out my Shutter Go Click Photography Year in Review before this one? Click for my 2021 retrospective.
SUPER 8
35MM FILM
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What a PHENOMENAL year. I feel like I repeat that every single 365 days but 2025 was seriously special. Yes my work aloud me to travel the globe in 2025, but it was tilting the scales on the side of FAMILY & getting that work life balance oh so right for the first time in history that really made 2025 my all time favourite. CHECK OUT OUR 2024 IN PHOTOGRAPHS.