About
You make good work by making a lot of work that is not very good
Greetings, my name is Mario Pineda and I am an indie craft artist currently based out of Alberta. After a three decade hiatus from serious photography I recently serendipitously rekindled my passion with the visual arts and the art of photography.
Photography has undergone transformative changes over the past three decades. When I was roaming the world and shooting pictures as a young lad in the 1980 and 1990, I wielded film cameras, handheld exposure meters and spend many hours in the dark room using chemical baths to develop and print contact sheets and images. Today, film cameras are relics of a bygone era and we no longer have to deal with chemicals or buy film and, instead of spending evenings and weekends in dark rooms, we now can sit at the kitchen table with our fury companions snoozing in our lap and at our feet while we “develop” our images on a laptop.
A Project 365 is a challenge where you kickstart your journey as a photographer by committing to capturing one photo each day for a year. Recognizing that not every year aligns with 365 days, the forthcoming 2024, with its 366 days, begets Project 366.
Barring unforeseen technical mishaps, evil viruses wiping humanity of the face of Earth or other extinction level events, starting on January 1, 2024 my objective is to capture, develop, and process images daily throughout the year. Assuming I am not off the grid, a chosen image will grace this website daily. These images will also be cross-posted on Instagram, Facebook and other fine online venues.
While this will undoubtedly be a trial by fire I am not a complete noob when it comes to these type of projects as I did another Project 366 four years ago. While that project also revolved around photography its focus on documenting natural history, presented distinctly different challenges. In contrast, the current project gives a nod to the fine-art photography of my formative years. As an homage to my early photographic pursuits and the pre-digital era fine-art photography genre, in this yearlong project I will be solely creating black and white images using the square format. Drawing inspiration from the great masters of visual story telling my aim is to "shoot what it feels like, rather than what it looks like" and the black and white square image format is perfect for this as it allows us to see the world in a new way.
Ultimately my goal with project366.art is to create art every day, because, well..., it enriches our lives and makes the world more interesting + it is healthy to create and enjoy art on a daily basis. I also hope to become a better photographer by mastering the modern photographic technology and processes involved in taking and developing photographs, explore my visual creativity and define my distinctive visual style.
I invite you to join me on this journey of artistic self-(re)discovery. You can follow along on this website, on Instagram and on Facebook. Vive l'art.
Mario
Edmonton, December 31, 2023