If you go, will you send back, a letter from America?
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“If you go,
Will you send back,
A letter from America?”
The Proclaimers - 1987
There are things we take for granted that if you stand back from them for a moment are miraculous. Humans aren’t always very good at working together, so a global system of post that can move items from one country to another definitely falls into that category for me. I can put something in an envelope, throw it into a piece of cast iron street furniture and then after a few days, it can be anywhere in the country, maybe even the world!
Many wonderful listeners to the show as well as other creatives that I’ve encountered have sent me things over the nearly 2 years making this, so I thought I’d share some of the lovely physical print that I’ve received and let you know how you can also get your hands on some of them.
First up is Richard Koek, he’s the guest on this Sunday’s edition of the show. Dutch born, US based, he swapped tulip fields in the Netherlands for the urban jungle of New York. As you’ll hear on the show, he started a project during lockdown to share postcards from NYC with friends which grew legs, as projects sometimes do. He now sends out around 100 postcards to folks around the world every month and I’d encourage you to add yourself to that list.
I love his stories, the way that he shares his love of people and photography with his patrons and friends around the world. It’s truly a joy to get some post from him each month.
Next, we have Artemis. Based in the UK she recently started to make a newsletter of sorts brilliantly called the Snail Mail Print Club. It’s the first time I think I’ve received something sealed with wax which was a lovely detail. Describing it as “a new A6 mystery art print and letter ... No ads, no screens, no algorithms. Just some words and some art you can hold in your hands, direct from my heart to yours.”
Isn’t that wonderful? We met on a photowalk in London arranged by friends of the show Silvergrain Classics and Dan Rubin, and when starting the project and knowing how much I love print, she offered to send it to me too.
Month one was a lovely collection to receive, I used to take part in Postcrossing about 15 years ago, and both projects seem like a more intentional version of that to me.
What am I reading?
As much as I love image making, it’s good to immerse yourself in other forms of media from time to time and I’m trying to read more. This week I’m starting The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I’ve meant to read it a few times over the years but have some travel coming up this weekend so figured I’d dip in. I reckon it’ll speak to the Dune/ Foundation loving part of my brain. If you’ve read it, let me know what you made of it.
Krystle Wright joined me this week for a frank and honest conversation about how your work can appear from the outside and how that can differ from the reality. She’s an amazing photographer and this is a great conversation.
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