A Nifty Fifty Understanding
Recently I hit a milestone in life hitting the big fifty, as most will have experienced photography and milestone birthdays often go hand in hand. Twenty-first celebrations include those images intended to embarrass the coming-of-age adult who inside has yet to mature fully in the emotional sense, therefore the intention is often successful. My life had been documented in photographs, many of which I had been unaware of or had forgotten about as I am of an age that my history is in film. Experiences were had and images taken, developed at some time after the event and looked at in the moment before being packed away in boxes to only see the light of day on occasions of having a clear out of other clutter. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future with people who have grown up in the digital age with the multiple social media platforms available to share, view, and archive, will it prove as effective as a box under the bed? Will they provide the same nostalgic feeling at the milestone birthdays when they are so readily shared through social media platforms on a more regular basis as memories prompted by an algorithm?
Returning to my photography over the past few years I have been generally taking images and practicing the skills and to take good images. I started taking landscape but was drawn to industry in the landscape or something that was out of place in an otherwise pleasant view, such as pylons. I very quickly got back to photographing people and in particular street, urban scenes, and have more recently been trying more documentary style work with weddings and events. I have been reading a lot and listening to photography podcasts. This has been to try and understand me and that question of what my photographic voice is, what am I trying to say through my images. Grant Scott poses the question to photographers on his podcast A Photographic Life what does photography mean to you? YouTube is full of photography information and channels, influencer’s and gear shows, I quickly found what wasn’t for me with shows like Photography Onlinebut as Grant finds out in his show it means so much and is different for everyone. In trying to understand what photography means to me I also have that dreaded imposter syndrome of feeling my work isn’t good enough or what I have to say doesn’t really matter, or there is nothing new to say. However, I want to make more sense of my motivations to making images to develop personally and create more meaning to my photography.
Photography is a medium to document as my life has been by parents, family members, friends, and official photographers. I hear you say yes so what’s so interesting and inspirational about that? This is when my milestone birthday comes in, what I drew from viewing all the images at my birthday was the importance of relationships to me. The images documented my relationships with family and friends, but also relationships I have with my leisure pursuits and work. The gathering was an immediate family one, but I noted that the people in the photographs of my life are all people who I had a valued relationship with and that was captured for me.
In trying to understand what photography means to me and find my “voice” I revisited the images I have taken and found the ones that resonate with me most are when I see a relationship. It is apparent to me in my images so far, be that landscape, cityscape, urban, street, or wildlife that it is the relationship that draws my eye to a scene which I photograph. This explains why I am most comfortable on the street as it provides the opportunity to capture relationships between people, their belongings, and the environment to name but a few. I always thought until now it was about capturing a moment, but the moment usually involves a relationship, the camera provides me with a portal to endless relationships with subjects and people I meet through taking images. As Neale James found on The Photowalk just like having a dog opens up conversation that would never otherwise happen, so does the camera, but with camera in hand we can capture and record that moment in time. Photography for me is exploring the endless relationships that exist in our world, it also provides me with calmness and a quietness from busy life but that’s for another blog.
Stay well and I’ll try to write a bit more regular from now on.
