Spring Cleaning
Photoshoot by Sophia Lei & Tristan Fischer
Written by Tristan Fischer
May 4th
In a time where everything appears in a perfectly curated form. I find myself, as many of you, longing for the truth, the perfection that comes from the life one holds between the moments in the limelight. Away from the intricately posed shoot. The purposefully messy flat lay engineered to look effortless and “aesthetic” to feed the endless consumption of social media.
The real glamour and romance is found in the messy moments. When every performance and falseness that people wear is simply stripped away to the raw nature of one’s being. Could be the simple spontaneity of a frantic between-classes break where you find yourself on a business call as you are carrying your overflowing bag in the dip of your elbow and a tray of coffees for your table in your hand. People moving all around.
A rush we are all living through, too overstimulated to notice we are barely present in it. I noticed it first in the light. The way spring arrives before you remember to look for it. And suddenly you are aware, almost uncomfortably, of how long you were not.
Spring is a time of rebirth. A moment where one pulls back the layers of accumulated stress and useless habits collected through winter. A slow returning to oneself. This spring is a time of reinvention for us all and we are looking for more truth. From your Instagram feed to the people sitting across from you at dinner, we forget to exist in our body and be truly ourselves.
Next time you reach for your phone to photograph the perfectly laid table, turn the camera on the friend laughing with their mouth full beside it. And so I urge you to look, actively, deliberately, at the overlooked moments of your life, recentering yourself around the messy life that we all lead and finding a certain love and appreciation for it. Because being yourself is the easiest thing to fake.
And perhaps that is where the reinvention truly begins, not in a grand gesture, but in the quiet act of finally paying attention. So who are you when you are not?
Find a few moments worth turning your camera on:
The version of you in the mirror in the three seconds before you straightened your hair.
The photo where your eyes are half closed, look at it again before you delete it. It might be the one where you are the most yourself.
The ordinary light of a Thursday morning and what it is doing to the people standing in it.
The hands wrapped around the coffee cup you are so desperately trying to capture, not the cup itself.
The moment right after everyone looks away from the camera and back at each other.
The busy street you have walked down a hundred times without once really seeing it.
The chaos you keep waiting to settle before you press the shutter.
The moment that does not feel photogenic enough to bother with.
The one busy friend multitasking as they walk towards you, the whole world moving around them.
The version of yourself no one ever sees, who are they?
Now go and find out.
Moment by Laure Verniquet
The Chef by Sophia Lei
Gardens by Tristan Fischer
Lunch Canvas by Tristan Fischer
Glimmer by Laure Verniquet
Looking Glass by Laure Verniquet