Film

Photography is an Art discipline that is split between what is captured, shot, frozen and CAGED within the boundaries of the lens. But the other half is what is not there, what my eye has chosen deliberately to ignore and exclude. Technically speaking, I do not see myself as a maestro, not at all, though I do have an eye for emotion and presence.

My images are moody, over exposed, blurrrrry and saturated in colour. I live for colour, I die for colour. I experience my life in colour. Black and white are colours too.

Unfortunately, We as a society have become numb to the power and magnetism which each image can hold, its view point and opinions, its poignancy. Daily, no, incessantly minute by minute we are bombarded by images. In fact, this is one reason I had to step away from this medium. I felt engulfed by the hysteria, by the abhorrent image whoring culture which We have created and I was willingly participating in this orgy of zero ocular mores. We have cheapened and deadened the photograph. 

Having cried my diatribe on my soapbox from the corner to my non existent following, can I vehemently preach that I do still hold film in high regard as an Artistic Practice. Photography like sumo ink calligraphy is a practice in restraint. Many people are aw struck by the new it phone and its three (four is it? five?) cameras or a new mega gazillion pixels of the fanciest new DSLR, but for what it is worth film emulsion photography portrays how we FEEL reality. So much closer to the human experience than what the crispest, sharpest and most illustrative digital camera can ever achieve. The grain, the mood, the chemistry of light and liquid blend themselves to the biology of emotion. I hate all my photographic images, until years later I stumble across them, deeply hidden and obstructed in some forgotten drive folder and then I become obsessed with nostalgia. Wow, I say to myself, remember how you felt back then. Remember who We were then and the twists and turns Life has taken us on.

Maybe we have gotten the concept of photography all wrong. Maybe this is its true purpose, not for looking at what the past was but in relation to where we stand now. All we have is this very moment.