Six Months, One Lens

Here we are, six down and at half-time. I considered making these images a Field Report for Discover Temples but I think some time at the desk with these exposed how six months in, only having one lens for stills — specifically the 35mm — has affected me. This isn’t about capability, I have said multiple times, regarding multiple lenses, on multiple assignments, that you may not be able to get the image, but you can always get a image. Horrible syntax there, but I think that is correct grammatically despite image beginning with a vowel. After beginning my journey into Japanese, English is the equivalent to trying to get an exposure with a hole in your shutter curtain anyway. I feel like I have been under-equipped by my tool, and that feeling is hardly a stranger. I may only be on basic particles and kana, but I see a day when these will be written in Japanese. The question isn’t if I can express this with words or kanji (not yet at least, I am a long road from the latter), but do I feel the same about my A7RV and 35mm G-Master? I was feeling growing pains with the Sony system through the earlier iterations, and growing pains with the Fuji system as I pivoted to institutional facing, archive-first imagery. I am probably the only person either brave or stupid enough to do a One Year, One Lens challenge in the middle of not only a hot project, but possibly the most career defining crossroad a contemporary photographer has even seen this generation.

I have shot less. Dramatically less. My shutter count is on just 4531 since August 2025. Especially when we consider that many of those actuations were during my live production on Discover Temples. But at the same time, it would be very hard to pin this purely on my OYOL challenge. Yet I cannot say with full confidence I wouldn’t have shot more if I was still getting ArtraLab or Venus Laowa units for review. I can say for certainty that I shot 100% more images than I would have if I did not break contract with ZEISS. I was prepared to freeze my entire imagery for the entire duration to protect my IP. I have a set of Batis lenses in my dry-cabinet, but the whole point of OYOL was to get away form the “3D Pop” or “Nostalgic Imagery” and the question now arises if that is still the path I want to stay on or if I am just making a rod for my own back?

Before I go into it, I want to talk about just how much has changed in this year alone. Japan has lost 13 temples to fire this year. Isaan is being torn up to host roads and railways between Bangkok, Laos, and China. AI datacentres are becoming a very real thing, with Google’s Chonburi location amongst others beginning construction. Meteorological departments have warned the government to expect El Nino well into 2027. No one likes the “I told you so” fella, but it is almost like I have been saying this will happen for the past ten years. When I know in my bones that the institutions who allegedly support the arts and humanitarian efforts are now directly responsible for this corpo-fuedalist environment I am navigating, I feel as if I would be shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. This mindset has poisoned my love of photography far deeper than restricting myself to a single lens ever could.

I could now make some excuses about my non-compete or losing Fuji editorials to justify what I say next, but I chose that. I still believe I chose right, I could have primed my next projects, I could have backtracked. I could even throw out some excuses about just how expensive Discover Temples prep is. Yet the truth remains, I chose to build this next leg on-spec and out-of-pocket. If I was back in the West, the problem is inverted. I would earn enough to afford anything within reason, here in Thailand life is so affordable I can afford not to work. But when the price of fuel has gone up by 50% my yearly budget now lasts 9 months. When AI has driven prices of a 2TB SSD to more than I use in a month? I begin wondering if the trip will be worth it. But the truth is, without a fallback, my entire gameplan is to make it to the first checkpoint. That being the Nakasendo in late 2027, a project I cannot afford at this current rate. I will find a way, I haven’t started pitching yet and I am hoping for another Discover Temples tranche over what winter we do get. Therefore learning Japanese has taken a significantly larger part of my professional life than photography. I have also began expanding away from stills, and started a new venture. I am concentrating on physical recouperation and with temperatures high, have avoided outside in favour of air-conditioning. Needless to say, my office is not home to the most interesting of photography subjects. All things not even remotely connected to One Year, One Lens.

But they are related to why I have shot less, and are even more pertinent to the question at hand: “Do I go back to my Batis?” Because If I were to liquidate them, it would answer a few of my problems. It would also introduce quite a few more to boot. Right now I can walk out my front door and shoot 80% of any gigs that come my way with those ZEISS’. Do I clean-slate it all, and focus on video? Far easier to sell than a monochrome monograph, and I am already supported by Angelbird and Dehancer, both of whom heavily skew towards video. Do I reach out to my old contacts and start making Sony reviews? We start circling the same drain again, don’t we? The problem is inescapable. The environment that these “institutions” and “photographic industries” have created breeds dependency. If I sold my Batis lenses, my FX30 even, would two weeks hiking the Nakasendo really give me what I need? I know the playing-field is not level. And I am fairly certain a 35mm G-Master isn’t enough to offset it.

And there is an anger in me. Thirteen temples, thirteen! Yet not a single call. Not a single e-mail. They are gone, and not a single institution (whom are very aware of who I am, what Discover is, what I do, and what I can do) even bothered to touch base. If it is not neon or sandy beaches, the West does not care. I can only hope that by speaking the language, I can find those in Japan that do. I am not doing this to make myself rich. If I were, I would be an utter failure. Why should I care about photography anymore? It is insufficient. Even if I had a thousand lenses…