Twenty Twenty Goddamned Five: Conclusion

welcome! you're at the final chapter of my 2025 recap. to start at the beginning and go from there, just click this link.

so! you've made it this far! this one should be a shorter post - you're welcome - where i sum up the year and look to the future, such as it is. 

Part Six: Achievements!

honestly? i'd have been happy to have ended this year with the only real achievement being my survival. given everything that happened, especially my sister's suicide, not to mention my own terrible mental health in general, to have made it with my body and mind intact to january 2026 would have been achievement enough. so everything else was a bonus.

i know artists who create just because they love the act of creation. for me, though, art is meant to be shared. i can't discount that dopamine hit from seeing the likes and lovely comments pour in when i upload a photo i'm particularly proud of. i do enjoy taking photos and film is extra special purely because i have no idea how a photo is going to turn out until i get the shots back from the lab; when the scans arrive in my inbox it's wonderful going through them all, even if they're not all winners. i get that rush as i wait for the pictures to be downloaded, another rush when i look through them and yet another when i take my favourites and post them on instagram, or on my lomohome. i love sharing my art, and i love it even more when i get likes and comments from people telling me they like them too. it makes me feel like i know what i'm doing.

lomography isn't just a company or an ethos - it's also a photo-based social media platform. you can set up your own lomohome for free, upload your pictures (so long as they're analogue), organise them into albums, and then you can search the entire site by anything from camera and film used to the frigging colour of the image. want to see just blue photos? lomohomes allow you to do that. thinking of buying a film camera and want to see what it's capable of? lomohomes have got you. if you take film photos and are looking for somewhere to store them, i can't recommend this one website highly enough. and hey, if you do, add me as a friend, i'd love to see your shots too.

they also do competitions every month (i've not won anything yet, alas), and every month they interview a different photographer for a special showcase called Honorary LomoHome of the Month. when i got the message asking if i'd like to be the HLHotM for June this year, i was absolutely floored. they were looking specifically for queer lomographers to showcase during pride month, and they chose me. i'd never applied for anything just to be clear, they found me. i was a little overwhelmed. they interviewed my via the lomohomes messaging system and you can read the article here if you're so inclined. 

riding that high of being featured, shortly before the analogue wonderland big film photowalk, was an amazing feeling. i was being recognised by an organisation very dear to my heart for my photographs, and the feedback i got on that article was so lovely. i couldn't believe it when i got a message a couple of months later saying i'd been chosen as the LomoHome of the Day too. this one's not an interview; lomography pick one home to be the HotD every single day, and this time it wasn't just kudos, it came with a 10% off voucher for their shop. i really like the photo they chose to showcase; a double exposure of the mottled light coming through our blinds, taken on my lubitel 2.

it was around this time (august this year) that a new friend on bluesky got in touch. a fellow lomographer, he was hosting an exhibition at a café in austria focusing on lomography, featuring a wall of photos and information about what lomography is and how anyone with a film camera can be part of the ethos.

obviously, i loved this idea. after all, i got into photography by taking pics of my pals on nights out but i i got into the arty side of things - the lomography of it all - after wandering into an exhibition. the idea that people could walk into this wonderful café and be inspired the same way i was? how could i say no. 

sascha and i spoke back and forth for months in the set up, and it turned out great!

i don't know how many folks took inspiration and went out with a camera based on this, but there was a great turnout and i want to really thank sascha for thinking of me and my silly little pictures. you can find sascha's lomohome and bluesky profile by clicking these links, and you should, he's a fantastic lomographer with a great eye who cares a lot about this community.

then, in september, one of my photos was selected to be displayed in the Glasgow Gallery of Photography. it's a digital photo, but it was one of the first photos i'd taken after deciding i want to use my camera for art. it mattered. plus, at the end of the exhibit, i got to take my print home. it's not on the wall yet, because it's pretty big, but it's a reminder that actually, i am not the worst at this photography thing.

actually, yeah, that's what these 'achievements' have in common, for me at least. it's not just a "hey, that's a cool thing that happened," though there is a bit of that. for me, it's a sign that i'm doing something right. what these achievements have in common is that they're telling me in small ways that i might actually be okay at photography. that i take photos that people like. 

i don't think i'm amazing, just in case you think i'm blowing my own trumpet here. but it's nice to be told in not so many words that i have some skill when it comes to taking pictures. that it's not just a technical thing, it's my eye and how i see the world. not to get too soppy on main but it makes me feel nice. that i have something to offer, artistically. i've been an artist since i was a kid, mainly into comics and graphic novels, then into painting and portraits, and now photography. being recognised, no matter how small the spotlight, means a hell of a lot to me.

Part Seven: Experimentation

taking up film - or any - photography involves a learning curve, something i've touched on in the previous parts of this 2025 retrospective. you acquire a tool - a camera - and then you need to learn how to use it. you learn about the exposure triangle, how changing aperture or shutter speed or ISO affects your images. and you never stop learning, but once you've got to know the tool you're using, that's when the fun begins. you can go anywhere with that knowledge in your back pocket, and you're always going to learn more as you do the thing than by reading blogs or watching videos. for example: portraiture is a massively different beast to landscape photography. street photography is a whole different kettle of fish to still life. 

as for me, i like taking photos of landscapes, cities, and architecture. and yeah, to start with i was just going up to places, holding the camera to my face and pressing the shutter. like i said, the best way to learn a thing is to do it. so that's where i started. wandering around my local area taking pictures.

(all of the above were taken on my lovely cute little praktica cm1000 point and shoot camera)

but for me, one of the funnest things about taking photos is that you can experiment a lot. take the same picture with the same camera but using different film stocks will produce different results. and there are SO many creative films out there. so as i tried to hone my eye, i utilised these weird and wonderful films to create some nice weird results.

lomography's lomochrome range is great for this kind of thing. lomochrome purple: yellows and greens become pink and purple, and blue becomes turquoise. meanwhile, lomochrome turquoise turns blues into oranges and greens into turquoise. harman phoenix and its successor, phoenix 2, has a pink tinge to it and is full of character, with high saturation. you can use all of these films if you have a specific target in mind - for me, if there's greenery to be photographed, load up some lomo purple. architectural shots with blue skies lend themselves to the alien worlds of lomo turquoise. and i can't think of a better use of harman phoenix than pink cherry blossoms.   

as you can see, most of these are nice photos of landscapes and buildings and plants, but using these weird films gives them an interesting look, and it's something digital just cannot begin to replicate. i love that. lomography especially are constantly bringing out new and exciting weird film stocks, and it's something i'd love to do more of going into 2026.

but experimentation isn't just taking standard-composed pictures on weird film. weird angles, clever composition, use of colour, and playing around with multiple exposures all count. i'd like to think i've done a fair bit of this since learning how to use my tools, and it's definitely more what i'd like to do going forward. i've always been a bit weird. time to embrace that.

which brings me to:

Part Eight: The Future

finally! 2025 is over! good riddance and, frankly, go fuck yourself. you started shitty, you remained shitty, and you ended shitty. if i didn't have my wonderful partner and my ridiculous obsession i can't imagine i'd have made it this far, in one piece at least. to quote the noble sage bernard black: "i can feel pieces of my brain falling away like a wet cake."

so, magic 8 ball, what does the future hold for me?

i think what i really want to work on is developing my eye. i know how to use the tools, and i love taking snaps of anything to send away to get processed and scanned, but if i want to be the best artist i can be, i need to work out what works for me, what doesn't, and what i need to do in order to stand out from the crowd.

on a recent photowalk a few days ago, i was taking a picture of a a ferris wheel next to three other photographers who were doing exactly the same thing. the guy on my left laughed and said "i'm going to enjoy looking at the same photo four times." and i laughed too. but it got me thinking. sure, four people take the same photo, some are gonna be better than others, but they're all going to be more or less identical. which, i guess, is fine; if you make a portfolio, you're only going to include your own shots, aren't you? but it's something to think about. if three other people are taking that same photo, what am i adding to anything? 

what i could do instead is find a new angle. what i'd really like is to see the scene and know instinctively what makes a good shot. i have a sense of this; i've only been shooting film since last november, and only really since february this year, but i have been doing it obsessively (i just checked; i have shot and developed 38 rolls of film since the year began, jesus christ alive. someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying), and i feel like i've learned a lot in that time. 

like i said earlier, you learn by doing. so there's a pledge for you: i'm going to take more photos. i'm going to look for those new angles and scenes. i'm going to experiment with long exposures, get good at multiple exposures. to paraphrase the chess champion emanuel lasker: when you find a good shot, look for a better one. that's what i'm going to do.

and i feel like, when it comes to new years' resolutions, less is more. i'm not going to become the best photographer ever in the span of a year. i mean, for a start, i don't even know what that would look like, there's so many different kinds of photography and i don't do most of them. what i will agree to is to be better.

already, i have two photowalks booked for the new year, one in january and one in feb. i'm gonna continue working and developing my eye, and i'm going to meet people i both know from previous walks and those i've never met before. we're going to geek out at each other's cameras and have a great time. 

photography has been like therapy for me, in a country in which actual therapy is limited and only available after a long wait on a list. so yeah, while i continue to grow as an artist, i'm also mainly in it because it's fun, it gets me out of the flat, and it makes me feel good, from the taking of the photos to that joyful anticipation as you wait for the lab to email you about your scans. i wouldn't give that up for anything.

i'm also going to try and blog more. film reviews, camera reviews, thoughts and such. i've enjoyed writing these posts and so yeah, why not do that some more? it's literally free.

Part Nine: Goodbye 2025

and that's me done, i think. thank you for sticking around this long. what an ordeal. sorry i tend to ramble; i will never not.

i do not know what the future holds. i don't know if 2026 is going to be good or bad, though looking at the world today it's easy to be pessimistic. all i can do is love with my whole heart, throw myself into pursuits that make me happy, and treat those i love with kindness. isn't that all any of us can do?

so yeah. 2025. you were terrible. i hope as you draw your final breath it hurts all the way down. 

for now, i'll wish you all a very merry christmas, a peaceful new year, and until the next time: good bye! 

please feel free to grab me on socials - i'm most active on bluesky and instagram, and check out my lomohome if you want to see literally everything i've ever photographed. all my links are here!

if you're buying film in the uk, i can't recommend Analogue Wonderland enough. they sell all sorts of weird and wonderful film, and if you follow that link you'll get a coupon for a FREE roll of Kentmere Pan 400, a decent quality black and white film. oh, and when you've finished your roll, send it off to Gulabi - they're cheap, provide high quality scans, and they're super fast too. i'm not paid for this, btw. i just really like these two companies keeping the film dream alive!