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Robert Adams, 'Colorado Springs, Colorado', 1979, © Robert Adams

During my editing battles of Do I Like This, Do I Hate This, Will They Like This or Understand This... I found this:

'All people in this world are made to give evidence or to signify something. [...]' In that spirit we ought as critics to remember that no subject matter is unimportant and no human response to it is unworthy of our attention.
The word of encouragement I would like to give to photographers is in the form of a statement by Matisse about painting, a statement we can apply by analogy to photography: 'A painter has no real enemy but his own bad paintings.' It is possible that, were I to look at your work, I would misunderstand or misjudge it, but my mistake would be of limited significance, assuming that your work is substantial and that you who made it see it clearly. A good picture powerfully vindicates itself in time; it is far stronger than a mistaken critic. -Taken from Civilizing Criticism, from Beauty in Photography, Robert Adams, 1981

I've been looking over my journal, letters to Laura, and old emails to friends to recapture some of my feelings and thoughts while I was on the road. The edit is going well. I've finally crossed the first of many obstacles.

I think the Photography.Book.Now competition is out of the question. Unfortunately I won't have time to do an accurate edit. I'm bummed. But it motivated me to really start moving on this process, and that is reward enough.