It's convenient and common for us to think and write about our goals at this time of the year, a practice I've adopted for some years. Last year, however, I decided to approach it in a more structured way.

Establishing concrete but flexible objectives, and recording them in a notebook has help me getting better at this. I chose Notion, a digital space where I documented everything that struck me in some way throughout the year: concerts, movies, series, exhibitions, excerpts from books or articles. This process, albeit partially subconscious, helps me to revisit and reflect, on what I considered important at the beginning of the year, making the path to achieving my goals more meaningful and conscious.

Among these goals is to be more diligent with my health and to improve my photography, always with a purpose in mind. Thus, I started the day in Madrid, still digesting the excesses of the last night of 2023, with a walk and a camera in hand. Still without a defined objective for what to shoot, I've realized that I have a penchant for capturing small, yet grand, architectural details that exist above my head - or, as a very good friend would put it, "Take one of those photos of yours looking up." I avoid photographing people after some unpleasant experiences, preferring buildings and streets, which don’t take offense at being captured by my lens.

This year, one of the goals I set for myself is to photograph with a purpose. For some time, the name “Arde Madrid” – also the title of a recommendable Spanish series by Paco León – has been on my mind, as something I want to create with or to explore as a concept.

Another purpose is to write more. Thus, complementing the beginning of this text, I started the year walking, photographing, and writing these lines. I don’t know if this is starting off on the right foot, but something is something.

Happy 2024, Pedro.

Last quote from 2023 to live by in 2024:

‘Having said that’ is the precondition of empathy, it is the capacity to see and understand the other side, to show that we have the necessary willingness to hold two contrasting ideas in our hand at the same time.

by Nick Cave on his weekly newsletter.

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