Although my journey with photography started back in 2014, to understand this odyssey’s true origin of fascination we’ve got to go further into the annuls of my captivation.
My father developed a passion for photography during his time working in Australia & Mexico in the 80’s. Over his stints in the two countries he had amassed a number of photography books. As a child oh how I would flick through these books in awe of epic landscapes, of terrains never seen & story-laden portraits of people embellished with character. Not to mention the lustre of microcosms that were microphotography. Needless to say, from a ripe age I was enthralled by imagery.
As I grew older the whimsical awe of photography sort of disbanded, yet the ‘photography-eye’, never truly abandoned. Throughout high school & university, I drummed through life constantly ‘seeing’. Of course, the likes of camera phones & social media came of age. The horde’s pursuit, a deluge of ‘likable’ images. I turned this bend, & with it, came a re-heightened ignition, to pique my interest, the siren song of the ‘photograph’.
Yet with a phone’s camera I felt an inclination that it was great to capture & steal fragments of moments in time, but, by means of poignancy, it was never enough. I wanted more from it. I distinctly remember in 2011, in an opulent suburban town, I would walk down the high-street to work & every so often I would curiously pop into a camera store & gaze upon their plethora of equipment. Their gear would not change too often over the months, but at least every fortnight I would be in there. Often they would ask if I needed any assistance but I would graciously decline their services under the pretence of “no thank you, I’m just looking”, to the point where they eventually stopped asking. I was in, all encompassed & immersed, but as the uninitiated, I didn’t know why. Then it dawned. In the store I was absorbing the energetic vibrancy of possibilities that lay before me, which was the prospect of being a photographer.
Fast-forward to 2014. A friend that I had shared a childhood with, had grown up to become a vlogger, product developer, & a brand in herself. She was casually parting ways with her SONY Alpha a5000 Mirrorless digital camera, & it was an opportunity that seemed, duly right at the time. Riveted with the excitement of my new purchase, over a lunch break I quickly scoffed down some food & with 15 minutes left I shot down to the most picturesque place I knew - a lake. On that infamous day, I took my first photograph. A docked fishing boat with accoutrements of fishing gear, & a notable club in her hull. I went back to the office & uploaded it onto my work laptop. As I looked at it on the screen I knew that I was witnessing an experience. A muse was born.
As the months & years merged into an elapsing period of time, my obsession got out of hand. I went on & learnt more. More about cameras, of course - how they worked, the variants in settings, aperture, F, Stop, ISOs et al. But also, revisiting the knowledge I had acquired in my fascination as a child, this time actually reading the words as opposed to just looking at the pictures in my father’s photography book. I strove to harness etiquette regarding composition & delve into my narrative, developing my ‘why’. Suffice to say that I went to teaching my first photography class to an excitable group of students, understanding the underbelly of what makes a subject photogenic.
Interestingly enough, when I started painting, I found that it led to the honing of the profundity in my photographer’s eye. Paint has not deterred the scope of my photography, in style or subject. I have always been a curious person & it has seeped into my iconography.
As a photographer I am still growing, clearly. On my journey the pressures of time, location & space continue to gnaw at the heels of my shadow, edging me ever forward in this seamlessly never-ending ecstasy that is photography. & yet as far as my mission is paralleled with my endeavour, I am still finding my narrative feet.
It can be all encompassing, to ask to what end? Maybe there is none – only the pursuit of indelibility. Photography in recent years has been marred by its accessibility & simplicity, “anyone with a camera can point & shoot a shot”. Yes – so be it. & yet despite this revelation, I’m a self-proclaimed addict, & as far as this obsessive goes, well, let’s just say…I’m just getting started.
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