Farewell to 2012

I've never been a New-Year's-Resolutions kind of person. Making yearly recaps always freaked me out in terms of being timid towards lack of achievements or progression, growing old and eluding time. Being well-organized is not my domain, neither I consider myself as a good planner. However, this year I somehow feel like summing up my blogging realms a little. I've divided deliberations over the blog (art) direction below into three types of posts that I create: travel diaries, personal style and photography.

In addition, as a result of some hard drive cleaning, I've found some photographs not published here before. Before they had been forgotten for good, I thought I would put some of them on the blog later. Above say there's the first one.

Travel diaries. I'm truly glad I had decided to go through again all the photographs I took during my journeys. Firstly, it was good to remind myself how much I enjoyed being in different parts of the world and learning a lot about myself from it. But secondly, I'm also glad I closed those chapters of my life, in a visual and written ways. My travels have been documented, and it feels really great. Besides small trips just outside my country, the most important travels I've ever had include: the U.S., Spain and London. The reports on America and London have already been published, and as for Spain, I'm going to publish another three En route posts with memoirs from Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid. That is to happen in January.

Personal style posts. That is outfits. In the upcoming year I want to work more on those and delve into what inspires my styling attempts. I'm not fond of following trends, it's the easy and lazy way. I'm more keen on styles built upon passion towards something inspiring and enchanting. Conscious sartorial choices, resulting from interests and stories. This is a direction I want to put myself into.

Photography posts. This is another thing I want to mainly focus on. I'm going to return to the blog's origins, when I expressed myself through photographic medium of self-portraiture. I want to work more on conceptual self-portraits, inspired by my musings around vintage arts and culture, classic film, books, music and fashion editorials. I love telling simple stories through expressive portraits, and since I'm not used to work with models, I will work my myself modeling again. I'd like to work more with lighting, scenery, studio, film and black&white photography. I've already made some shoots, and they are to be shown in January.

Inspiration: films, books, writing. I used to be a confused kid chasing society for acceptance. It may sound like a brave statement, but I believe everyone once used to be that kid. I was lucky to realize some day, and I hope most of you also were, that it isn't a social life that I need to find my well-being within, but rather my mindset and perception. And I've found my substitutes for wild parties, that is literature and cinema. Moreover, photography, menswear and music; arts and culture. And I don't feel like missing something; on the contrary, more like gaining something really valuable. And I love the ways I learn more about myself with each book or film.

For some time now I've been struggling thinking over the concepts for blog contents. As much as I'd like to write about menswear collections, fashion shows and photo editorials, I want to stay loyal to the blog content created genuinely by me. I don't feel like posting someone's else runway or lookbook pictures. That's why under my photographs I write mostly about things that inspire my everyday life and encounters with the art of photography. I'd still want to push myself further and write about the fashion and photography scenes, but with a will to include only my materials here, that is the unknown for 2013, and something to be figured out.

Now, below I've listed the films I saw and books I read in 2012. And beneath, some of the titles to get familiar with in the months to come.

Merry 2013!

2012: Books read

Allen Ginsberg: Howl
Charles Chaplin: Autobiography
Chuck Palahniuk: Invisible Monsters
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great GatsbyJ.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Louisa May Alcott: Little Women
Michel Schneider: Marilyn’s Last Sessions
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde: Stories and poems in prose
Salvador Dali: Diary of a Genius
Victor Bockris: The Life and Death of Andy Warhol
William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

2012: Films seen

101 Dalmatians
13 Tzameti
2 Days in New York
A Dangerous Method
A Place in the Sun
A Streetcar Named Desire
All About Eve
Almost Famous
Arrietty
Big Fish
Breathless
Bus Stop
Cafe de Flore
Chelsea Girls
Children of the Corn
Ciao! Manhattan
Cinderella
City Lights
Cleopatra
Clueless
Darling
Detachment
East of Eden
Factory Girl
Fantasia
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
Flesh
Freaks
Frida
Full House
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Girl With A Pearl Earring
Gummo
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part I
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part II
Hocus Pocus
Howl
Immortals
In the Mood for Love
It Happened On Fifth Avenue
Jules et Jim
La Vie en Rose
Lady and the Tramp
Les Chansons D’Amour
Let’s Make Love
Marie Antoinette
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Modern Times
Mona Lisa Smile
Moonrise Kingdom
My Week with Marilyn
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Niagara
Notting Hill
Paris, Texas
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Press Pause Play
Rabbit Hole
Rebel Without A Cause
Rent
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway
Restless
Romeo + Juliet
Savage Grace
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scream 4
Sherlock Jr
Sleeping Beauty, 1959
Snow White and the Huntsman
Something’s Got To Give
Somewhere
Sunset Boulevard
Super 8
Suddenly, Last Summer
Take Shelter
The Artist
The Circus
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The General
The Gold Rush
The Great Dictator
The Help
The Kid
The Lovely Bones
The Misfits
The Nanny Diaries
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Seven Year Itch
The Wizard of Oz
Trash
Tuck Everlasting
Twilight Saga
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me
Uncertainty
We Bought a Zoo
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Weekend
White Oleander
Wilde
Yves Saint Laurent: L’amour fou

2013: Books to read

Chuck Palahniuk: Haunted
Colin Wildon: The Outsider
Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment
George Orwell: 1984
Gerald Clarke: Truman Capote
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Truman Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Truman Capote: The Complete Stories
Truman Capote: Other Voices, Other Rooms
Truman Capote: Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

2013: Films to see

1935, The 39 Steps
1936, Poor Little Rich Girl
1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1938, Bringing Up Baby
1938, The Lady Vanishes
1940, Pinocchio
1941, Sullivan's Travels
1943, Shadow of a Doubt
1944, Lifeboat
1947, The Bishop's Wife
1948, Rope
1950, Night and the City
1951, An American in Paris
1953, Roman Holiday

1953, The Band Wagon
1954, Dial M for Murder
1954, La strada
1954, Seven Samurai
1955, To Catch A Thief
1957, Nights of Cabiria
1959, 400 Blows
1957, The Seventh Seal
1961, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

1961, The Children's Hour

1963, Bye Bye Birdie

1963, Charade

1963, Contempt

1966, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1968, Night of the Living Dead
1970, Deep End
1973, La Nuit Americaine
1974, Chinatown
1975, Love and Death
1976, Carrie
1977, Suspiria
1984, Birdy
1984, Dune
1985, Brazil
1985, The Purple Rose of Cairo
1988, Jack The Ripper
1988, The Big Blue
1991, A Nightmare on Elm Street VI
1991, The Addams Family
1994, A Nightmare on Elm Street VII
1994, Heavenly Creatures
1996, Trainspotting
1998, Shakespeare in Love
1999, All About My Mother
1999, The Straight Story
2000, Dancer in the Dark
2001, Pulse
2002, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
2002, Talk To Her
2004, A Good Woman

2004, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

2004, The Phantom of the Opera
2005, Me and You and Everyone We Know

2006, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

2007, Into The Wild
2007, The Good Life

2008, Brideshead Revisited
2008, Sunshine Cleaning 
2008, The Edge of Love
2008, The Human Experience
2009, Away We Go
2009, Home

2009, Kynodontas
2009, Micmacs
2009, The Limits of Control
2010, Three
2010, Let Me In
2010, Little White Lies

2011, Pina
2011, Sleeping Beauty
2011, The Art of Getting By

2011, The Future

2011, The Rum Diary
2011, The Skin I Live In
2012, Anna Karenina

2012, Cloud Atlas

2012, Cosmopolis 

2012, Hitchcock 

2012, Les Misérables

2012, On the Road

2012, Skyfall 

2012, Starlet
2012, Stars in Shorts

2012, The Girl

2012, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2013, The Great Gatsby

2013, The Bling Ring

PS. The other day I read somewhere online a wise statement. Life doesn't get easier, we just become stronger. I'd add, life doesn't get more beautiful and significant. It's us whose responsibility is to make it significant and valuable. We become wiser, more read and aware. Let it be a mantra for 2013.

We Do What We Want To by O+S