Re-imagining my photos wasn't as easy as I had thought.
Sure, I could see things that I had never considered before, and I could probably invent any old rubbish and justify it if I really wanted to, but that wasn't the point. Looking over some of my older stuff I have found new meaning and feelings that I may have not been aware of when I'd taken the pictures (such as, how crap some of that stuff now appears to me). I find that fascinating.
Sure, I could see things that I had never considered before, and I could probably invent any old rubbish and justify it if I really wanted to, but that wasn't the point. Looking over some of my older stuff I have found new meaning and feelings that I may have not been aware of when I'd taken the pictures (such as, how crap some of that stuff now appears to me). I find that fascinating.
I remember reading about what Wright Morris said to Peter C Bunnell in an interview from 1977 (Bunnell, 2009) about coming back to a photo after years:
"Then coming back, about three years later, I saw that picture for the first time...".
A photographer friend of mine also once told me to never throw anything away as one day you might see those pictures differently. He was right.
And besides, it's not that strange when you think about it, how many times have you picked up a book that you just couldn't get into years before, and now, suddenly, it works for you? The same with music, and films. I also find that the reverse also happens too: books I once loved now I find poor, or dull or annoying.
"Then coming back, about three years later, I saw that picture for the first time...".
A photographer friend of mine also once told me to never throw anything away as one day you might see those pictures differently. He was right.
And besides, it's not that strange when you think about it, how many times have you picked up a book that you just couldn't get into years before, and now, suddenly, it works for you? The same with music, and films. I also find that the reverse also happens too: books I once loved now I find poor, or dull or annoying.
This also reminds me of a similar kind of feeling I've had over the years when walking to and from work (I've worked in the same place for about 20 years and am lucky enough to be able to walk there from home). There's a tremendous sense of familiarity while at the same time an unquestionable and eerie feeling that I am walking there for the first time; there's a sensation of being in the now, and if we consider it like that, then that is the first time in this particular 'now' that I walk there. The past is just remembered present isn't it? I digress...
Being absorbed by Cosci's philosophies and opinions from some of his interviews, I thought I would apply some of his anti-establishment, and intrinsic violence of power views regarding his misgivings towards the built up cityscapes around us (with a fair sprinkling of my silliness too)...
- Gate. Panasonic DMC-TZ5, 1/320 sec at F/8, ISO 100, 35mm Eq. of 28mm; 15/02/09
Applying a very simplified version of Cosci's ideas, I feel this picture (from 2009) now represents the entrapment and appeasement of the masses; slaves trapped within the confines of our own illusions of freedom; safe within our little palaces with our plastic toys and electrodomestic diseases consuming and crushing our hearts; our minds incapable of any original thought or actions while being caged in by those oppressive heavy yellow bars that are so massive and so obvious that we can't even see them anymore: creatures of habit one and all. We are simply conforming, obeying, silently weeping our faces into our hand-held electronic Gods while our souls seep out slowly from the other end; souls that rot and crumble under the farcical delusion of hedonistic reality that we, admittedly, have created for ourselves in this part of the world, forever on the fringes of being aware that we were destined to be something else, something glorious.
Or maybe we weren't and this is just how it was meant to be, this is how glorious it gets.
Whatever. Let me just turn that telly over, and then see if my download of five seasons of something or other has finished while you take the microwaved pizza out the freezer.
Cheers.
Or maybe we weren't and this is just how it was meant to be, this is how glorious it gets.
Whatever. Let me just turn that telly over, and then see if my download of five seasons of something or other has finished while you take the microwaved pizza out the freezer.
Cheers.
References
Flickr - Photo Sharing!. (2016). Gate, (2009) [online] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinbyrne1971/3282915818/in/album-72157632508942521/
[Accessed 6 Apr. 2016].
[Accessed 6 Apr. 2016].
Bunnell, P. C., (2009) Inside the Photograph, Aperture Foundation, p155
“I’intrinseca violenza del potere” from an interview with Dario Ciferri, Marche Centro D’Arte, exhibition, San Benedetto del Trono, April 2015. 2006 [online]. Available at: http://www.gianlucacosci.com/page17.htm [accessed 6/04/2016]
A shot I wanted to use but didn't in the end but have now
- Pegs. Panasonic DMC-FZ38 (with Raynox M250), 1/40 sec at F/3,6, ISO 100, Eq. 122mm, 07/03/09.
I recall purposely arranging the pegs here to give the background some form and shape (as well as colour).
Flickr - Photo Sharing!. (2016). Pegtastic, (2009) [online] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinbyrne1971/4500895590/
[Accessed 6 Apr. 2016].
[Accessed 6 Apr. 2016].
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