Here’s my 9th yearly montage. Every January, I look back through my photos from the previous year and assemble a grid of 12 photos per month in chronological order. The top row is January, the next is February etc. It gives me a chance to reflect on some of the big and little things that happened.

Above is 2016. An XL version lives on Flickr. All the other years live under the #montage tag.

That’s nine times I’ve made one of these. Nine times. I guess the 10th will feel especially crazy (or maybe the 12th - there’s probably some way of montaging the montages) but for now, nine is hard to believe.

2016, then. The general consensus is that it was a stinker. News-wise, yeah, not great. I feel like the indyref forever conditioned me to expect that all important votes are gonna go badly. Brexit was/is horrible and, when Trump won, the feeling of waking up to a confused world was, like, normal.

Amongst the many celebrity deaths, Hearing that Dylan Rieder had lost his long-fought battle with leukaemia was terribly sad. That boy had it all. Dave Mirra’s suicide hit hard too. Heaven is a halfpipe etc.

Personal-wise, 2016 was good. We got up to the highlands, over to Bruges, had a pals-holiday in Croatia and visited my brother-in-law in Barcelona. Lots of time wandering Glasgow and Edinburgh too.

Work-wise, eh.

Anyway, I’m feeling good, I’m motivated, I’ve got stuff to work on and my studio is tidy. Always forwards, never backwards. Happy New Year - have a great one x