I haven’t thought too much about the mechanics of blogging before now. There are so many blogs I enjoy – women in Paris with tired eyes, long-suffering film enthusiasts, over-enthusiastic vintage hoarders – but I don’t really think about the people behind them. They might post pictures of themselves, at home, at work, but it’s always so oddly forced. I know there’s someone or something holding the camera up, deliberately framing the picture to be most flattering to its subject. They’re edited to be welcoming and bright, then put up with a few words on what a wonderful day the blogger had had. I’m always aware of how staged it all is and that distances me from the blogger as a person. They’re more of an actress or a set dresser than a human being.
Very still life (image by Elsa Billgren)
Setting up this blog has felt a little awkward and a little forced, which I think must be natural. Everyone wants their blog to look a certain way – you know, like this, but not the same, but with the same feeling to it, the same vibe. My feelings are on the small scale I know; still, the people behind the blogs I enjoy had to make those impossible decisions between fonts and colours and themes, oh my god; but more than that, they finished and left their computer to do something unphotogenic.
It’s a bit of a leap to connect “is this title a little bit too sassy and will I be resented for it” to a lovely Swedish woman who does hair and collects 1950s crockery. The mechanics and process are the same, though, so it’s interesting to get some insight to what goes on behind impractical vases of peonies and stacks of coffee table books.