When I decide to go for a walk, I swear, sometimes I have no idea where I’ll end up. I’ve started doing it this way on purpose, mostly because it triggers two things in me that I really value: adrenaline and surprise. I’m a very methodical, organized, planned-out kind of person. Those are great traits, no doubt, but they come with a downside that not many people notice. When you focus too much on control and details, you start losing touch with certain emotions. And that gets exhausting.
My daughter is on school break now, which gives me a bit of breathing room from the usual daily responsibilities. At work, since the year is wrapping up, everything is basically on autopilot. So yeah, if I’m being honest, everything in my week is pretty much under control. But that leaves me with this weird, bitter feeling. Humans are like that. When we master one thing, we immediately start craving something else.
And even though everything is under control, there’s something I’ve been wanting to lean into more with the little free time I have. Photography. I don’t know if I’m good at it, or talented, and honestly, I don’t really care. What drives me is capturing reality in a way that feels right to me. To me, that’s the beauty of photography. It gives you total freedom. I don’t know if there’s any other human activity that offers that level of expression and release.
So I decided to photograph my own neighborhood. It’s just a regular residential area, nothing special on the surface, but when you walk through it without a plan, it opens up in unexpected ways. Like finding this beautiful Collie staring right at me. Her name is Nieve, and she’s the sweetest. Capturing her essence wasn’t easy. She was restless, playful, constantly giving me her paw, throwing her toy at me, asking me to play. Animals are everything. I love them.
And then there’s the small Catholic church just a few blocks from my house. I won’t lie, I’m not particularly religious, but I’m not an atheist either. I guess I believe, in my own way. That day, though, the sky was completely covered in clouds. It’s been like that for a couple of days now, and you can feel winter slowly settling in. The temperature drops, the air changes, everything feels quieter somehow.
That atmosphere, combined with the perspective I was chasing, made that church look different. It’s a place that hundreds of people visit every week, every month, every year, but through my lens, it felt more personal. I’ve never been too comfortable with authority, to be honest. Call me crazy, but I do think a bit of irreverence, in the right measure, is something we shouldn’t lose.
In the end, I’m just walking through the same streets I always do, the same places I pass by every week, but this time paying attention to details I usually ignore. And that’s the beauty of it. Seeing instead of just looking. They sound like the same thing, but they’re not. The graffiti on a wall, a telecom tower, things I’ve probably passed a million times without really noticing.
My neighborhood isn’t different from yours, and I’m not more or less fortunate than anyone else. What I’m trying to do with this is follow that spirit of finding beauty in the ordinary. In a simple walk. In the everyday. That’s what this is about, at least for me. Existing, noticing, enjoying. The same places, over and over again, but always with the chance to surprise you if you let them.
