Throughout this module, we will be asked to carry out activities from The Photographer’s Playbook. All of these activities are carefully selected and aim to make us think about our practice and where it might be positioned in a professional context.
The first activity is from Michael Christopher Brown, an American photographer represented by Magnum Photos. “For much of my career, photography was more of a way to make money than a compulsion. I spent a lot of time communicating ideas that were not my own. Two years ago, during the Libyan Revolution, I began taking a more honest path with regards to photography. It had to do with finding a voice. An interesting exercise that anyone can do is to take one photograph per day for a week. The idea is to be focused enough to only photograph what is absolutely necessary. What are the seven pictures that not only define the week but yourself? What if you were to die next week and these were to be the last seven pictures of your life? This exercise can be an important analysis of the self in relation to life and photography.”(Flex.falmouth.ac.uk, 2017)
My week in images.
My week reflects my trip to Amsterdam as part of the MA course, meeting friends, laughing, observing others, and then back to reality with happy cats, a chest infection, study time and a very dirty horse (his field is lovely and muddy – perfect for rolling!).
As part of my practice, I capture images every day. Often this is on my iPhone, as I always have this on me. I capture images of events, nature, and anything that catches my eye. I use these images as a visual record of my life. Some of these images make it to Instagram or Twitter, whilst some just remain on my phone.
As this week’s task was about recording seven days, I did choose to include images that would not normally be published. These are the image of the tablets and the books. The tablets remind me how my Addison’s Disease lets me do the things I want for a few days and then it rears up and knocks me back for a few more. But I am here and I am lucky to have the life I do.
My MA studies are very important to me and the book image is a reminder of that. These are books that I am currently reading in relation to my project. Animals, friends, and family are very important to me. I don’t normally publish images of myself but have included 2 here which have happy thoughts and memories attached to them.
So why do I take photographs every day? Moments are fleeting. Time passes by so quickly and almost in front of my eyes. The landscape and world around me seems to be constantly changing, whether it be due to the seasons or due to man’s intervention. The most important element of these photographs are that they make me feel something; they evoke an emotion in me. The light at that point in time might never be the same again, so I need to capture it at that moment. The camera on my iPhone is a way for me to document and preserve that moment so that it can live forever. Beauty and art are everywhere.
The exercise has encouraged me to continue to record images everyday of the world around me. Whilst the photographs can’t replace my memories or me, they do offer an insight into who I am and what is important to me.
REFERENCES
Flex.falmouth.ac.uk. (2017). Log in to canvas. [online] Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/84/discussion_topics/2791 [Accessed 29 Sep. 2017].
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