Taking a chance and breaking out of my perceived constraints
Each time I embark on a new photography project requires a series of decisions that apply constraints to the way in which I’m going to make work. Without any constraints, the options for making each picture seem endless, so the parameters I set both consciously and unconsciously aid my decision making in the moment by essentially giving me less options. It’s a fresh opportunity to assess the way in which I’m working and allows me to consider the equipment I’m using, the location, subject matter and people involved.
This process essentially eliminates many of the opportunity of chance affecting the images. It puts me in control and on an often a relatively narrow path to create what I’ve intended. This can be incredibly helpful when I’m working with people, having a structured process reduces the variables and the consistency can really aid the impact of the final set of images. The constraints also help when I’m trying to build a specific atmosphere within a body of work, particularly when editing and deciding which images to include and which images might lead the viewer away from my intended sentiments.
Last November I took a trip to Athens to take part in some workshops run by Nearest Truth. My aim had been to get feedback on existing work from the tutors, Raymond Meeks, Adrianna Ault, Tim Carpenter and Gregory Halpern, which was extremely productive.
Naturally, I began to explore the city with my camera, it felt disarming, run down and actually quite unsettling. It forced me away from my usual parameters of work, I had to push through the discomfort and embrace the chance to respond to what was in front of me, without any preconceived idea of what the pictures might look like. There is a risk to that. The pictures may well reveal more about yourself than you are normally willing to admit, but that is the point. I slowly scratched away those layers built up through years of socialisation, the shells created to protect myself from a world that demands so much and wants to hold us to higher standards than are actually possible.
As the week went on, I found my flow, the pictures just seemed to happen so naturally, so much so that I went back in March to continue what I’d begun at the end of last year. The picture below is a great example of something I wouldn’t have even considered capturing at home. Technically it’s imperfect, but there’s a narrative within it which draws me in. I want to embrace that serendipity, the opportunity to step outside my psychological structures and see where it leads me.
Music - ‘On Reflection’ by Willam Basinski and Janek Schaefer
A serene and spacious record from one of the masters of ambient music, collaborating with composer Janek Schaefer. This record combines their numerous catalogues of piano loops and layers of recorded environmental sound, which allows the music to blend into whichever space you find yourself in. floating through it regardless of whatever else is going on.
. . . on reflection (one) · William Basinski · Janek Schaefer
Photobook - ‘Even The Birds Were Afraid To Fly’ by Al Brydon
I’ve been an admirer of Al’s photography for many years and his latest book is another quiet meditation made within the English landscape. The weight and depth of his work really resonates and he described in a recent article on the excellent Another Place blog how photography gives him a reason to escape and find somewhere quiet and magical, something I often do for myself.
“There’s a place I like to be. I can go there, not see anyone else and just watch the birds do that curious dance they do. It makes me forget everything, I find myself standing and waiting. Sometimes, but not always, the flocks become one mass of birds weaving and dancing together and if I’m on my own it feels like they are doing it just for me. I rarely feel so privileged. I make some pictures of the birds as they fly past but it’s the sound I love the most. It’s the loudest quiet sound I’ve ever heard, thousands and thousands of tiny wings.”
Get yourself a copy of the book published by Kozu Books here.
Book - The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry
When I became a dad when Tilly was born in 2018, I found myself attempting to understand the parenting decisions that my father made for me all those years ago (I recently turned 35 which my wife informs me means I now classify as ‘middle aged’). This felt like a natural default, the closest example of fatherhood that I had observed, an example set to me which I could follow. Since Joshua arrived in late 2020, that role of fatherhood has evolved. Being the father to a boy feels like quite a different challenge, and I continue to refer to the wonderful example set by my own dad, but I am already feeling the weight of having to set him an example of what it is to be a caring and loving man in 2022.
It’s all too easy to fall into the traps and stereotypes of masculinity, to soak up the example of negative role models and assume the expected default of tough love, high expectations and pent up emotions. Grayson Perry’s book The Descent of Man was published back in 2016, and to a degree already feels slightly dated given the social progressions we have made in approaching gender in the last few years. However, he eloquently takes on the assumptions of modern masculinity, challenging the typical expectations of how to live as a man. This book has really helped me affirm my approach in bringing Joshua as a generous and emotionally aware little guy.
News - Youth Group Workshops in East Manchester
Over the next 6 weeks I’ll be working with 5 youth groups across East Manchester, working with kids aged 8-16 to enable and encourage their photography. We’ll be exploring various themes including family, community, hopes, fears and hopefully gathering a set of images that offer their view of the world.
In the sessions this week I built a portable studio and asked them to interview each other about how their day had been. I then helped them to take portraits of each other which represented their answers.
I’ve got a feeling I might learn as much from them as they do from me.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to pass the mailout link on to anyone you think might be interested.
