Happy Friday! Almost weekend and… it’s time for a new Inspired by!

Inspired by is a blog series by my friend Riikka and I. We decide on a theme (and that theme can be anything from a film, a book, a painting, to an item, colour scheme or material) and then we create something with that theme or thing in mind.

We keep what we’re making a secret until reveal day on the 10th, when we show you and each other our creations.

This month’s theme

This time we choose a photographer!

I’ve mentioned Vivian Maier here before, because I took a Vivian Maier inspired street photography workshop once. (You can see some of the photos I took in this post: 141108 Amsterdam).

What I didn’t mention there is that I also went to an exhibition of her work, I watched both documentaries and that I followed one of the blogs where her photos were first published over six years ago. I can’t remember which one and I also don’t know how I discovered it. The only thing I do remember is that the images and the story blew me away!

That said, it might surprise you that I wasn’t the one that suggested Vivian Maier for this month’s theme. Riikka did! I believe she saw the documentary ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ and I think she was as intrigued like I am!

The project

So… what was I going to do with this theme? If I would have had more time to think and play, I would probably have made this into a bigger project. I could have gone into the city to shoot new (black & white?) photos or to make a little movie for this Inspired by.

But I had too much going on and not a lot time to ponder over it, so I rewatched the documentary for added input.

This is what I wrote down:
Street
Garbage cans
Self portraits
Pack rat
Receipts
Brought ‘her life’ with her
Kids
Film
Reporter
Photos shot from the hip up
Square
Adventures (with the kids)
Found junk
World trip
Newspapers
Dark side

I cannot even begin to tell you all the possible leads that popped into my head! But there wasn’t enough time! I decided to go with the low hanging fruit… self portraits.

And even that was a challenge, because I hardly ever take selfies. I’ve only got a handful of recent photos with me in them and they are really crappy. I’ve never been a huge selfie taker, but lately, if I do take one, they usually do not turn out good. Because I just want to get it over with. So it has a lot to do with me not making the effort, but it’s also a definite sign of me not being happy with the way I look at this point.

So… photos. What do you do with photos? You scrapbook them of course! Another challenge for me to conquer… I hadn’t scrapbooked in months!

I had noticed Denise Morrison‘s approach to pocket page scrapbooking on her Instagram feed and I decided that a baseball card pocket page was the way to go. I dug out the Scrapdelight December Daily kit I purchased last year, but didn’t use… and came up with this:

Conclusion

I can still do it. I can still make a decent scrapbook page! It is simple, but fun. Even with crappy photos. And I enjoyed making it!

The one thing that I struggled with, is actually quite obvious if you know me and my scrapbooking style… There is no journaling on this page.

It’s not that I don’t know what to say. Because I know exactly what this page is about. This page is like a mirror. Hence the title. It’s the story I tell myself. And there is no need for me to put it on this page.

Sooooo… Let’s see what Riikka has created! I can’t wait!