Through Thy Lens

Heidi Wang is a Taiwanese/Canadian student at the University of Ottawa ; whose first contacts with photography date back to a very long time ago.  At the beginning of the year she began a project on her Instagram called “The 365 Project”.  This photography project greatly piqued our interest and today she has kindly agreed to tell us more about herself and the project as well.

•  Who is Heidi Wang ?How would you describe yourself in a few words?

I describe myself as a collector of all sorts. This is a kind of problem because I always have more stuff than I have room for. I collect pens, I collect stationary, I collect tea, I collect yarn – it never ends….

The photographs and Project 365 are an offshoot of that – it’s a curation of the memories, of the people, of hobbies, of objects, of food, of knowledge that have played a role in my life. Each is a particular snapshot of who I am and what I’ve done in my life.

                                                                         

•  Could you tell us more about the 365 Project?  Are you interested in photography in general or is just for the purpose of this project. If yes since when ? 

I’ve always been very interested in photography. I actually grew up around it. My dad was the head of the local photographer’s association before my family immigrated to Canada and our family business in Taiwan and our first business in Canada was a photo shop – back when people still get film developed and printed. Photos are just a really big part of my life right from the beginning. You should see how many photo albums my mother has, haha.

The idea behind Project 365 is to take a photo every single day for an entire year. I started this one on January 1 of this year and the longer I do it the longer I think I’d like to do it again next year. I’ve made 2 other failed attempts at Project 365 in the last 5 years. I really love this idea of documenting my life, but it does take a lot of commitment especially when you have a bad patch in your life – if you’re feeling depressed, work or school takes over, or you just sort of realized that you don’t really do that many different things. But it’s also that difficulty that makes it worth it at the end of the year. When you look back and see yourself getting into a rut, for a week the photos are uninspired, but you also get to see the recovery – you see that, pain and struggle is temporary. Things get better, as the saying goes.

I love this idea of time lapse and recording growth. To me this project is no different than time lapse photo of a plant’s growth cycle – the movement from seed to sprout to plant – a lot of times change in a year. This project really makes you look at things differently. I hit a period where I just could not think of anything to photograph, and it became a chore. Slowly though, it’s pushed me to try different things, to frame things differently, to look at the things that I do as worthy of time and attention. On the technical side, this project is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s become a lot easier to take photos. I can see my photography improving when I look back on the year so far in my Instagram feed.

 

•  What are your other interests in life ? We noticed that you do a lot of cooking. Ever thought of having a cooking blog ?

I have some pretty odd hobbies. I kind of move through phases though where I get completely obsessed with something for a while, then I either move on, or it becomes part of the backdrop instead of taking centre stage. My most recent hobby has been fountain pens. There’s something about the way they look and feel to write with that has really captured me. It’s also a bit of a nostalgia thing. I spend all of my time on my phone and computer, so it’s a really different feeling to sit down, shut off the outside world and just write – with a pen and paper.

I also knit and crochet, though not as much these days. I really love cooking and baking. I think with all of these hobbies that I pick up it’s about that diversion from real life – taking a break. It’s my version of yoga – except I really hate moving. They’re all also very hands on stuff. I’m very specific about the things I like, so knitting, cooking, fountains pens – they’re all extremely customizable, I can make things fit my needs.

Yeah I love cooking. The only thing I love more than cooking is eating, haha. I’ve thought a lot about blogging in general, but I just don’t think I’ve found a … raison d’être?… for doing it. I just haven’t seen where I could come up with something original and worth reading, but more importantly, worth doing enough that I’ll actually do it. I’d love more reasons to make more delicious food though, so maybe that’s reason enough.

 

• Yeah we were quite intrigued by your interest in notepads, inks and fountain pens. Would you like to tell us more about it ? 

Some of my friends would say I’m obsessed with those things, but I like your word better. I actually have a secondary Instagram feed @fourfiftytwo that is dedicated to these analog tools. I try a lot of different inks and pens and paper and post mini reviews there.

   

•  What’s next for you ? Any other projects or ideas you would like to share with us?

I think I’m interested in starting some kind of Youtube channel as the next step, I really like visual mediums lately. Ideally, I would start a blog, but I have a hard time putting things into words. I’ve had some pretty awful writers block for the last few years. I think I’d like to write a novel out by hand though, maybe the novelty will make me actually write again (you’ll find this all over @fourfiftytwo if it ever happens).

The real answer is no, I have nothing concrete to share. I love what I’m doing now, and eventually some other crackpot idea will pop into my brain and take over my life. Until then, I’ll just be hanging out on Instagram more often than I should.

Thanks again Heidi for answering our questions and sharing your visual skills with us. 

Feel free to follow the progress of the 365 Project on her instagram feeds @heidingaway & @fourfiftytwo