{"id":50780,"date":"2020-01-15T23:17:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T04:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattsteffen.com\/?p=50780"},"modified":"2020-01-24T17:15:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T22:15:11","slug":"2019-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattsteffen.com\/2019-year-in-review\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 year in review"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel like this one really flew by. I’m saying that every year, usually followed by some variation of “but seriously this time.” There is a biological component that explains this. Our neural pathways grow longer and more complex while also degrading with age. The inner workings simply slow down causing the perception that time is speeding up. I also wonder if my inability to take my foot off the gas is stretching my attentiveness too thin. Most likely some combination of the two.<\/p>\n

But for all the effort, the sleep deprivation and candles burnt at both ends, I feel this year started to gain some real traction. There were projects advanced and ideas let go, most importantly, reaffirmations that I’m heading in the right direction. I’ve never believed in gifts god-given, shortcuts or luck. Talent is just curiosity bolstered by hard work and the most successful are usually spending their free time practicing how they’ll react when chance appears.<\/p>\n

2019 started with a phone call from Miami, longtime friends and collaborators the Forealism Tribe<\/a> were setting sail on the Groove Cruise<\/a> and had room for a stowaway documenter. Fortune favors the prepared, once every 40 years or so that manifests as a week at sea on a ship blasting 7 stages of round-the-clock EDM. It was a beautiful reminder that life is absurd and if you embrace the foolishness once in awhile, you will be rewarded with furthering friendships, amazing photo opportunities, and bizarre stories.<\/p>\n

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I had ample opportunities to show my work this year. The amazing team of Polly Magazine<\/a> was able to release 2 more print issues. I’m always amazed at what our small team of super creative folks can pull off and the talented people of Cincinnati that let us in and allow us to shine a light on their lives. In what is now our fifth year, we have some big things in store including a move into Felsenhaus OTR<\/a>. This summer Michael Kearns and I filled the Kennedy Heights Arts Center<\/a> with photos from our years of photographing the Cincinnati Opera and continued building on our love of the illustrated essay through Open Roads United<\/a>. The Cincinnati Chamber<\/a> invited me to join a team of bad asses to cover Cincinnati’s biennial light based art festival and most attended event ever, BLINK<\/a>. A few of my shots appear in their commemorative book<\/a>. I also had the honor of having a piece included in FotoFocus<\/a>‘ juried show to accompany their annual symposium,\u00a0AutoUpdate: Photography in the Electronic Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Some wonderful organizations continued to trust me with helping them tell their stories, many thanks to United Way of Greater Cincinnati<\/a>, My Nose Turns Red<\/a>, IF Cincy<\/a>, Bellwether Music Festival<\/a>, The Cincinnati Art Museum<\/a>, ArtsWave<\/a>, and Visionaries + Voices<\/a> to name a few.<\/p>\n

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I closed out the year with a photography workshop with Michael Wilson<\/a> in coordination with the Cincinnati Art Museum and their exhibition of Sohrab Hura’s The Levee<\/a>. This workshop’s theme was Regarding\u00a0Place<\/em> which I found particularly suited for my style of work. I spent 8 weeks shooting and refining a collection of photos about my sense of “home,” culminating with a book of images and thoughts. I found it challenging, validating, and reinvigorating. I can’t say enough good things about the community Michael is building through the Manifest Drawing Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I tend to stay pretty busy, but this year I’m going to switch things up a bit. I’ve resigned my post at the day gig. It’s time to make my own path again, a little older and wiser this time around. I hope to be more mindful of the work I choose and not let it cloud my view of what is already here. I’m going to try to pull back on the reins a bit, slow this train down and be more intentional with my only true asset. What an amazing opportunity to find myself in, surrounded by love and encouragement, loud enough to drown out the projected fears and self-criticisms.<\/p>\n

I wish you all a meaningful 2020!<\/p>\n

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In Photos:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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