Minimalism in photography (and in life)

For a while I have been toying with the concept of minimalism, what it is and how it would work in my life.

I run a lot, enter(ed) a lot of races and found I had accumulated medals and t-shirts that were kept in boxes and drawers, unseen.

So they were the first to go. I donated the medals in the first lockdown to a school to give out to returning pupils and the t-shirts to a charity that repurposes them.

Next came all the things that I had around the place that were there "just in case". Ebay and Marketplace are my friend. Anything that doesn't sell after a few weeks will be donated (when I am able).

But the hardest thing to lose was 20 years worth of negatives from the first years of my freelance life. Thousands of pages of film I had been carrying around from house to storage unit, storage unit to loft. And not once had anyone approached me for reprints. Yet for some reason I couldn't let go.

I felt they were something that anchored me to my past.

I realised they were actually an anchor around my neck.

So this week I had them all shredded.

It was scary, letting go, but the space, physically and mentally, it has created far outweighs any sense of loss.

Now to tackle the bookshelves!!

How could you simplify your life and would it be a benefit to do it?