When photos start feeling stale

At some point this year my photos started feeling stale. I noticed it before I could explain it.

Looking back at the last stretch of posts, the framing had shifted. Flat, straight-on shots. An expat worker with their back to me as the first thing your eye landed on in the frame. It wasn't intentional. I hadn't been trying to make them the subject. But the framing kept doing that — centering them, making them the point. Which is almost the opposite of what I was after. I wanted the whole scene. I was getting the person.

That happens when you get too comfortable. You stop solving each frame as a new problem and start reaching for the version that worked last time. The city looks different every time. The photos stop looking different.

I deleted Instagram. It wasn't a dramatic decision — more of a quiet one. Walking had started to feel like scouting for the next post instead of just seeing what was there.

I started a Pinterest board for myself. No posting, just collecting. I called it "reset." Then I went back to walking.

What I actually notice around Malé when I'm not thinking about what to photograph: motorbikes parked in swarms, the shadow of a plant leaf on a painted wall, someone carrying something too large on a bike, compressed buildings where light comes through at a specific angle, broken glass on the ground, reflections in vehicle windows, Komorebi — sunlight filtering through leaves and landing on something below.

I had that list from the beginning of Infinara. I'd stopped looking for those things.

Infinara was never meant to be documentation. Documentation has a subject. Art has presence. I'd let those blur. Going back to the list reminded me of the difference.