I was reading a magazine article the other day - yes folks, I actually found time to sit down and read one of my many photographic subscriptions - and in it an 'expert' Wedding Photographer was going on about how hard it is being a self-employed professional. The long hours spent alone, the isolation, the lack of 'interaction with other people' and the fact that he felt he was in a rut with the 'grind' of it all. His solution? Shoot your own personal project to freshen up your passion again! Brilliant! Only thing is, my passion never goes away! I can't stop taking photographs and yes, whilst there is a truth to his article in that it is a rather solitary life (Aw, poor us!) it just makes me realise how lucky I am to have been doing my 'hobby' for the last 34 years! Personally, I love working alone, and daily I bow in thanks before Tripodius, the great God of Photography!
The picture I'm showing today is from one of my earlier photographic projects - the 'Don't Miss This' series shot on an Olympus XA. To my mind I can see echoes of Robert Frank here - now there's a photographer I'd love to meet! - but hey, we can't escape influence, and Robert Frank's as good a starting point as any! Some of this work -mine, not Mr Frank's! - is still up at Corvino's Wine Bar in Culcheth, by the way. The show's been extended by popular demand! (Ok, the owner said I might as well keep 'em up there as she had nothing else to cover the walls!) and in the same way I fell in love with the XA, my new 'camera of choice' - the Fuji X10 - is now hard at work, and the foundations of yet another photographic project have been laid down. The camera's given me a whole new way of shooting and, ironically, there's no way I'd be getting the shots I am if I wasn't working alone.
Intriguing!...
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