Buenas tardes, señoras y señores,

This is issue number 50(!) of this monthly newsletter called Dialogue. My name is Mitch, and unsubscribing remains easily done from the bottom of each missive. Did this email get forwarded to you by a friend, then you should probably subscribe.

We’re back from 10 days in Spain. I’m recovering from a 9-day fever and headache, then a 4-days and counting stomach flue. I’m falling apart but I’m doing quite well because I can feel this alignment rumbling in the background of my life. An alignment only gained from doing the things you're know you're supposed to be doing.

Lastly, for the intro, my weekly newsletter Closer came to an end last week with a closing essay in issue #025: Photography in the Age of AI (2025): Lessons From 25 Weeks of Experimentation. I'm drawing my conclusions from 24 weeks of experimentation and let you know if artists are doomed to die or destined to design our destinies.

Covering Amersfoort

The final rays of sunlight have disappeared in the past month. At least the ones that warm your skin enough to make it glow to the touch. I don't mind it. I like a good change every now and then. Even if that's just the seasons.

There's still some light on the horizon though. One I create myself, if I may briefly indulge in self-flattery. Mainly as a result of my refocus on this project. Walking every street of a city is madness. It continues to be, even though I’ve normalized the idea for myself. But that’s a good thing. That madness sets you apart from the masses. Though you could argue the masses are mad in their own way too, but I digress. Still, it’s not something I recommend unless you’re extremely curious about every minute detail of your world.

Sometimes I can physically see where I'm walking, realize there's probably nothing out there, and still force myself to go and look. Even if it's just to complete the GPS recording I use to keep track of my progress. Lift that stone, admire the roaches.

You can follow along with the project’s process from the dedicated project page, my Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, or simply this newsletter.

Covering L’Estartit, Spain

Before arriving at L’Estartit, Spain, the homebase for our 10-day Costa Brava getaway, I thought it’d be fun to add an entry to my Crossing walking project. I’ve so far only managed to cross my hometown from left to right, and top to bottom. I wondered what that experience would be like in a different town.

Further studying the map to plan an interesting route, I learned that walk would only be an hour. The town is that small. So what if I instead... covered every street? Would that be realistically possible? Well, it turns out it is. So I did. Mostly. This is what that looks like.

To quickly point out the obvious, I ended up walking about 90% of the town. The clearest omission is the residential area in the north of L’Estartit (no footpaths!) I also didn’t cover all its urbanization projects located a little outside the town (too separated.) The big orange blob on the map is where we had our accommodation and my GPS tracker has been pinging satellites over night for 10 days.

The question then becomes: why walk every street of a small beach-side town on the Costa Brava? The answer to that I don’t fully possess yet. Some part of me wondered what a completed cover would look like. I’ve been intermittently Covering my hometown since 2021 and am not even halfway through. What if I finish and conclude: “yeah, this is not the most interesting work, is it?” I don’t think that’ll be the case (quite the opposite!) but I wanted to test that assumption in some way by Covering this smaller town in Spain, sit with that work, discover what it means, what story it tells, and hopefully pull some direction from that for my bigger project of Covering my hometown of Amersfoort, The Netherlands.

You’ll have to grant me some more time to do exactly that. We’ve returned from our Spain trip last Thursday night. I’ve been under the weather from Wednesday night (indeed, our travel-day on Thursday was a challenge) and only now start to feel a little better. I’m not sure if I’ll add this work from L’Estartit to the Covering project page. Maybe when I finish editing my photos I’ll discover something worth sharing. At this point I don’t even know how to share the results of a project like this. Again, having this project done, at a scale this small, makes it possible for me to think about these things way ahead of the completion of ‘the big one’. It’s all part of the progress.

And just in case you’re still wondering: Why? Why on earth would you do all of this during your vacation? Why spend time on this? Why go through the effort of thinking about all this, doing all this, broadcasting it like this? Who cares?

My answer would be: to carve out your own path, you have to start walking where there hasn’t been walked before. Walk in the wrong direction for a bit, discover that isn’t it. Take note, diverge, continue walking. Try to learn something from this place you weren’t supposed to end up, now that you’re here anyway. What do you like, what don’t you like? How can you find more of what you like? How do you share that joy with other people, in the hopes they like it too? While you seek that joy for yourself, perhaps you can train your empathic side, no matter how great that side is already, bring some joy to other people too. Share that story that, yes, this world is kinda nice. It is definitely still a beautiful one. A place where humans can live in harmony, if we continue trying. This is me trying.

Studio update

Sigh... Okay I’ll be honest. I am not good at this studio building stuff. At least not yet. There’s so much stuff I simply don’t know. And I also don’t know I don’t know, until I run into problems and suddenly: aahhhh what the heck, does it work like this? Why did nobody tell me? Did we assume I knew? Does everybody else know and am I the only ignorant one? Or do we all pretend to know until problems arise and if they arise with me and I explain to you my struggles then, yes, of course, I should’ve known that in advance. Not that others necessarily would’ve, it’s just easier to spot the flaws in a plan in hindsight rather then when you’re in the middle of it.

I’m over-inflating things. Getting the floor fixed was a nightmare. I won’t bother you with the details. I’m not even sure if it’s fixed now. I haven’t been brave enough to ask my partner after the vacation. Once that floor is in though, once that giant hurdle is crossed, the rest should be easier to figure out. And if not, at least we can take residence in the space. Start building on the other plans I so desperately look forward to increasing the velocity off.

The fire inside me nearly died during this process. Suffocated from the lack of oxygen, from drowning in this sea of challenges. But a smoldering fire needs just a hint of air to reignite again. I think I see some flames forming.

Mitch

P.S. my Globule Wallpaper Pack suddenly became particularly interesting to buyers I’ve never heard of, so maybe you should give it a look too. Perhaps browse the rest of the store for a bit while you’re there, see what you like. Any purchase here is the best way to support my work.