The end of year final balance

Saying goodbye to this year and a welcome to 2024

A difficult year on a personal level, with a lot of shit swallowed. I have had experience with evil, coming face to face with it. But I wasn't scared and I reacted promptly. Because this is the only way to counter it.

This preamble is to give a dimension of what I'm experiencing, but don't worry. I am still here always ready to do battle, with the fire of passion always burning high. People can also hurt you a lot, but the important thing is to know who you are, not to give in and to rely on your strengths and those who love you. The evil they think they are doing backfires.

AN IMPORTANT JOB CANCELED

Talking about career, the year started off difficult but I picked myself up until I saw a lot of light in the last few months. Seeing many jobs cancelled, especially at the beginning, also because they were very important and which would have boosted my business very positively is not easy to accept. But it's not just me. Unfortunately the world has changed, for the worse, and now everything has become much more informal and commitments are not honored. The concern mainly concerns a large brand that had chosen me through an agency, but then everything was canceled due to the remodeling of the same brand. It would have been a great advertising campaign that would have featured me as a photographer. Patience: other things will come. In the past and this time because I wasn't in Mexico I had to give up a job for Bild. So I've been through a lot worse than this.

OFFICIALLY A YOUTUBER

On the other hand, I worked all year. And there are many positive things that concern me on a professional level. I have dedicated myself a lot to videography, taking care of THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY CHANNEL and the result has recently led to my entry into YouTube's partners. A note: you really love the MASTERS series.

MY PHOTOGRAPHY

My photography has evolved a lot this year, also by virtue of an awareness that led me to move away from journalism to move with a decisive step towards the world of art. And ironically I recently sold a documentary photo thanks to one of the news agencies. But this new step throws me into a different dimension and for this reason the change of cameras I use has its weight. A light weight in the sense that I switched back to micro four thirds with the purchases of 2 Olympus Pen.

This year I took a large number of high-level photos. This awareness makes me euphoric, even if I remain grounded. And in any case this data is confirmed by new registrations for my workshops. The more I work well as a photographer, taking good photographs, the more chance I have of selling my experiences.

PHOTO COACH

The photographic expedition to Oaxaca during Dia de Muertos had only one assistant, but unlike everyone else I don't cancel and the photographic expedition is guaranteed even with only one participant. I organized everything differently though, using public transport and this made the experience even better. This is thanks to Brad and his flexibility, but also to my skill and knowledge of Oaxaca. My workshops and expeditions are authentic. And really focus on the people who participate. This way we get real results. The trip to Oaxaca was also good for me as a regenerating opportunity.

MY WAY TO BE SOCIAL NOW

I made the account public on Facebook. This is due to a self-analysis and a maturation process that led me to reevaluate my priorities. I am no longer afraid of exposing myself publicly since I prefer to talk about photography and my business and leave everything else out, keeping it confined to the private sphere. Personal problems probably also made me understand that battles on social media are meaningless. I need to focus only on photography that is my job and ensure the sustenance of my family with it. everything else really takes a backseat. And in any case I don't want to come and tell you about the revolution anymore.

THE NEW BRAND: alex street

Over the course of the year, in a sort of spontaneous evolution, the site has conquered new strongholds of power. Carrying forward a unique, absolutely personal and non-copyable discourse, supported by the idea of gonzography, a term I coined to describe a certain approach to photography, supported by my workshops and photographic expeditions, today Alex Street is a brand that contains many proposals for photographers who want to enter a circuit far from the usual dynamics.And the same is happening for the brands interested to become my business partners. And which already allow me to look brightly at the future.

CONCLUSIONS

If 2023 hasn't been a great year in many ways, I can say that my photography has never been stronger. The respect I previously had has increased tenfold. The awareness of being who I am as a photographer and as a man helped me. Don't read this as arrogance, it's just the safety of my means in a context of adversity and sea against.

I am doing and I will do a lot for other photographers. And now you can become part of this. The Street Photography gand will move as a sort of agency/magazine. I believe a lot on this project and I hope you will do the same. If you think to support photography, well by supporting me you will help a lot.

Thank you, guys to be here with me.