What is AMoYT?

I found an enthusiasm for photography the same way many do: I looked at a lot of pictures. As a child, I loved to flick through my family’s photo albums. More than anything, I appreciated that I could literally touch the photographs. Holding an image that was either taken by someone I knew or of someone I knew put photography in a context I could comprehend. To this day, I make frequent trips to the library for photo books and to my local camera shops for 35mm film to preserve photography’s ability to take up physical space in my world.

The subconscious desire emerged in those early days, but I wouldn’t understand how to make photographs successfully for many more years. Pressing a shutter is easy, but getting results to be proud of is anything but. I’m still not sure I really have it right, but I’m confident that the whole point of an artistic endeavor is never to feel like there’s nothing left to learn.

As I continued to develop my skills and create a body of work I was proud of, I found it difficult to present my work in a meaningful way. Social media may have once been a great avenue, but I find it has become inundated with advertising and conformity to “viral” trends. We are rewarded for saying more of someone else’s message, or doing more of what someone else is doing. Contests can be beneficial for exposure, but more entry fees can get expensive fast, especially when other responsibilities can take financial priority.

Presentation is just another step in composition, and I believe the key to a meaningful presentation in the digital age is “less”, not “more”. Less advertising. Less competition. Less noise. With a digital landscape consistently yearning to give us more, I began publishing A Moment of Your Time (AMoYT) so I could give readers that “less”.

Articles on AMoYT take two forms: Digital Postcards and Artist Spotlights. Digital Postcards feature my work and a brief exploration of something tangentially related. Spotlights give space to other talented artists to express themselves through their work. Content is released weekly, and it’s completely free to subscribe.

I keep articles intentionally short so readers can engage and then move on. I want it to be an opportunity to engage with visual art and the artists that create it. Less ads, less selling, and less calls to action. Time is valuable, and I have immense gratitude for those willing to share it with AMoYT.

Thank you for your time.

Nick

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The print store password is “mereautonomymotif” (mere-autonomy-motif). Everything between the quotes. No capitals. No spaces.