Photo by Ruthie Cristobal

Changing lenses in Paris. Photo by Ruthie Cristobal.

If you've been following this blog lately, you must have felt a bit let down. The thing is, I have been quite busy.

First, with finishing my PhD dissertation. It has been more than three years in the making, and I thought about dropping out more than a few times, but somehow, I managed to stay on track and finish it. The final thesis is online, if you feel curious (pdf warning), but be aware that the level of gibberish-ness is quite high. I still have to defend it, probably in late November, but am otherwise completely done with academia. After nine years in university, it is a very weird feeling.

The day after handing in, I flew back to France. I had no reason to stay in Denmark and needed to be much closer to the mountains if I was to have a go at being a mountain photographer (the 172m high point of Denmark doesn't quite qualify). Last Friday, I filed the paperwork I needed with the French treasury, which officially makes me a professional photographer!

I had been thinking of this for years, but it is only in the last couple of months that it became really obvious this was what I should do, and that there was a good chance I might actually make it work. It will be tough, for sure, but I can see it working out.

Practically, this means a lot more time for being in the mountains and shooting, so hopefully a lot more new images, posted on the blog and the newsletter. My immediate plans: mountaineering in the Écrins next week, a Magnum seminar in London in the weekend, more mountaineering in Chamonix the following week, then hop on a plane to California to go check out what the big deal is with this Yosemite place everybody keeps talking about...

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James Monypenny after a victory on the Cosmiques Spur.