Stop sign in the highlands of north-east Georgia, 2024.
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- Completed printing workprints for Out of Memory Vol. 7 and Vol. 8, including custom storage boxes—now only two volumes behind digital archive
- Designed and published a 40-roll rugged film storage box design
- Listed all my 4x5 and 6x17 lenses on Mercari as part of ongoing gear decluttering
- Launched photographic website at toto.photo!
- Started an experimental photography sketchbook
- Started year-long bookbinding class in Tokyo
- Added photos of the Unbound Notebook System to the page
- Prepared and printed materials for Jinny Street Gallery’s Big City Bathing exhibition (opened May 16th)
- Activated the Jinny Street Gallery newsletter which now has around 130 subscribers
- Traveled to Berlin for byLudo’s Green Product Award ceremony; met George Nebieridze who I haven’t seen in a decade.
- Spent time in Rome working intensively on Soma and Synapse development
- Made prototype Mac app for converting digital negatives to positives – not sure I’ll continue
- Did portrait photography test shoot in Villa Pamphili Park
- Traveled to Ariccia; food was amazing
- Got confirmation for [redacted] retreat in late September in Canada – excited
- Arrived to Madrid
The highlight of the month, particularly on the very last day, is definitely the upcoming retreat to Canada in September. I’m really looking forward to it. As a bonus, I’ll be doing it with my dear friend and fellow photographer, Leon Gallo.
Soma.app has grown into an entire ecosystem of thinking tools, which I’m calling Synapse. It’s a bit of an ambitious project and will require at least a year of work, but hopefully, I’ll have a working prototype and perhaps even an alpha program together in a couple of months. If you want to follow along with the progress, make sure to subscribe to The Flâneur, where I might announce a dedicated newsletter or work blog.
As usual, this month also felt empty before writing the summary above. It is astonishing how helpful this practice has become to my end-of-month routine.
Soma.app is becoming much more than just a paper-to-digital note scanner app. I’ve named this new project it spawned Synapse. It seems like I’m building a note-taking app that can surface insights by simply searching the entire ‘vault’ of notes. I’m unsure whether to start with an Obsidian plug-in or a brand new macOS app. My disdain for multi-platform apps might push me towards the latter, but an Obsidian plug-in could be a good start since I’ve already implemented a command line version of Synapse.
During the month, I also caught up with my film backlog—everything in my red folder, marked “To Scan / Needs Attention,” is now developed and scanned as working files. Work on the 10th(!) volume of Out of Memory has begun.
- Completed setup and renovation of my darkroom at Kyojima Studio with proper organization, light-sealing, and equipment installation.
- Preparing for Project Roam launch—announcement of what it is and when, coming soon.
- Resumed development of Soma.app and Synapse.app—my note-taking software ecosystem that will integrate into Unbound Notebook System.
- Advanced Project Manus by installing a ceiling-mounted projector and camera system at the studio.
- Worked on the first Project Roam product during a trip to Ito.
- Developed dozens of films for upcoming Out of Memory Vol. 10.
- Michibiki Vol.2 exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery.
- Designed and released new Jinny ⨉ Erica Ward Hoodies on the Jinny Street Gallery Store.
- Got myself a maxed-out MacBook Pro M4 Max with all the memory to play with AI and Ollama.
- Started designing and brainstorming on Project Janus—a hybrid digital-film 6x9 camera.
- Revived the Jinny Street Gallery newsletter (subscribe here).
- Attended the Tokyo Art Fair 2025.
- Visited Katsumi Nishizawa’s show and a book launch.
- Celebrated the closing of NININI, a beloved local bar and friends of mine and Jinny Street Gallery.
- Added a few more books to the library—Todd Hido’s House Hunting and Outskirts and William Eggleston’s 2 1/4.
Looking at the list above, I’d call this month productive, though everything was blurred by the onset of my hay fever, which struck almost precisely at midnight on March 1.
Reviewing this list also reminded me how glad I am to have started keeping a daily journal back in early 2019. It’s become one of the best investments in my mental health. As someone with the memory of a goldfish, who constantly needs reminders, it’s reassuring that each month I can have an AI generate a summary of everything I’ve done. This monthly retrospective leaves me feeling calm and satisfied.
(The list above differs significantly from the summaries produced by AI, as I need to manually clean up project names, add relevant links, and remove personal items. However, I do rely extensively on AI for analyzing my journal entries and drafting initial monthly summaries like this one. I’ll be writing about how I combine these tools.)
- Prepared Michibiki Vol. 2 exhibition at Jinny Street Gallery.
- Shipped all Punctum exhibition catalogs—some copies are still available for sale.
- Made major modifications to the darkroom to enable C-printing.
- Created a “VNS adapter"—merging Valoi easy120 and Negative Supply light source for better color negative scanning.
- Published Pentax Digital Spotmeter Sticker.
- Published Foldable Film Reminders.
- Completed shooting the final roll for the Out of Memory Vol. 10 project.
- Committed to a year-long bookbinding course starting in April.
- Featured (with Lorenzo) on the cover of a local Jingumae magazine—andJ.
- Created substantial updates to the Unbound Notebook System’s Analog Photography Templates.
- Took a ski trip to Zao Onsen in Yamagata, experiencing the famous “snow monsters” (ice-covered trees).
- Spent time developing my film scanning workflow, improving negative-to-positive conversion techniques.
The shortest month of the year turned out to be quite productive—or maybe it’s just being back in Tokyo and getting into its rhythm again that moved me fast. For certain, I do feel quite a bit more comfortable in my studio—creating and working there comes easily.
I’m catching up on my infinite backlog of tasks and getting closer to launching a membership program. I haven’t set an exact launch date yet, but it feels more imminent than ever.
- Developed new sections for toto.photo—exhibitions, press coverage, and a works archive.
- Had three photographs from my Tskaltubo series published in the Atlas of Ruins book.
- Migrated The Flaneur newsletter platform to ttvl.co; no more Substack and walled gardens.
- Updated ttvl.co: the darkroom section now has several new items, and the Unbound System section has been expanded with new templates.
- Learned a new technique for negative-to-positive conversion in Photoshop using negative mask subtraction—still fine-tuning the results.
- Built and started experimenting with a pinhole camera.
- Started working on a membership website platform using Go + Gin.
- Took a long walk in the Pigneto district in Rome.
- Visited the Vatican Museums; Raphael’s School of Athens and the Sistine Chapel are impressive.
2025 started off very busy. I’ve made good progress towards my plan to launch a membership program alongside three(!) websites. I feel like I’m on track to achieve that. The 12-week year system is working well for me, although I do not adhere to its original methodology from the book. I didn’t find the book quite good, frankly—but the idea is well worth trying.
The visit to Tbilisi was pleasant as usual, but the moment I was there, the protests were much calmer than I expected. I didn’t manage to shoot much.
- Completed the Punctum Exhibition Catalog – now available for purchase.
- New film development workflow using the Jobo Tank System. I might consider using it as a rapid travel film development workflow too.
- Made a new Film Process Template page on Unbound, creating detailed guides for chemical preparation and development procedures.
- Published the Film Canisters Stickers project.
- Acquired and tested a second Contax G2 camera body – Araki – with a 21mm Biogon lens and GD-2 data back.
- Published EDC Modular Keychain for carrying photography accessories (film canisters, filters, and other tools) alongside with keys and EDC essentials (band-aid, AirTag, etc).
- Led few Artist Walks for Punctum at Jinny Street Gallery.
- Upgraded the studio workspace with new adjustable lighting system – now my shop desk is as lit as a stadium.
- Traveled to Tbilisi for protests and New Year’s Eve.
December was hectic, but it felt less overwhelming than November, mainly because I’m no longer preoccupied with the visa and paperwork I had to submit to the government. Everything is completed, and now I’m just waiting.
I’ve also found more time to spend in a studio, which has become my happy place for small projects and creative work.
November is always tough on my brain, but pleasant on my senses. Tokyo is blessed to have one of the nicest Novembers of all the places I have been. The sun shines at least two-thirds of the days, and the cold is not as bone-piercing as it could be. November is also the month I have to renew my Japanese visa—every, damn, year. I hope this time I’ll get a three-year break from it.
- Worked on book projects including printing Out of Memory Vol. 9
- Tskaltubo photos accepted for publication in Atlas of Ruins book
- Managed Jinny Street Gallery activities, including an Artist Walk
- Trip to Bucharest, Romania
- Started Transcendental Meditation
- Visited Tokyo Photographic Art Museum to see Alec Soth’s A Room of Rooms
- New photography books: list them.
- Volunteered as polling station staff for elections in Georgia
- Spent time in Georgia and Tbilisi
- Took a trip to Kazbegi, staying at Rooms Hotel with views of Mount Kazbegi – never gets old.
- Did a photo shoot for byLudo at Tsekhi
- Successfully repaired an RZ67 camera using 3D-printed parts
- Translated a Lucky/Fujimoto CP32 manual from Japanese to English
- Implemented a new 6 AM work routine
- Continued work on Out of Memory series
- Set up and organized the Studio
- Italian road-trip: Rome, Siena, Lucca, Cinque Terre, and Porto Venere.
- Walked the Aurelian Walls in Rome
- Explored Cyprus: Larnaca’s coastal areas, Nicosia’s divided capital, Famagusta’s ghost town, Troodos mountain villages
- Rammstein show in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
