Yesterday was a huge day. I was lucky enough to be invited by Susan Bucanan to critique North Side Creative’s annual portfolios of their projects of passion.

Thirty two portfolios and over six thousand written words later I surfaced inspired by the beautiful work that I had gone through. They had a whole team of people setting up and taking down displays as I worked my way through them all.

When I was at about six I wasn’t able to even imagining finishing them all in a day. But like marking essays for university, each one is easier to critique than the last. It’s about practice and benchmarking I think. Less thought each time and more intuitive reactions. At first we have to think through every thought and every word I write. Am I being too harsh, to soft… what should I encourage… what errors do I correct? How will it effect the person…

Being an empath, the last thing I want to do is upset someone. Inevitably I will have. But overall the overwhelming majority will be very pleased with the paragraphs of feedback each portfolio received.

The work was outstanding. Creative. Imaginary. And of the highest standards. Impressive. A testament to their mentor Susan.

My favourites were inevitably books. Perhaps it’s because I am working on mine atm. Perhaps it’s because it is such a precious object. A book seems to elevate itself to being special. People, including myself, feel that a book has gone through a larger editing and approval process. Yet that isn’t always true in this age of self publishing and vanity press. Even less true for a one off book that many photographers make today.

Books are special. If you haven’t made one yet you should. Perhaps that can be your project in 2020. Your personal project of passion.

I can’t wait to see what my mentoring groups get up too next year.

King Ferns, mount Wilson, ink series. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2019