Title image - Lune Estuary, Lancashire
So, the choice today was: sit and vegetate in front of the TV for 4 hours watching Lawrence of Arabia (which I still haven't seen); clean out the desperately untidy garage (job from hell); have an extended moaning session with my spouse about how stuck we are in our lives (yawn); clear out my email inbox (441 emails and counting) or, write this.
Having been brought up with the words 'Shut up, I'M TALKING' ringing in my ears, the idea of expressing myself publicly doesn't come easily. In fact, I experience considerable anxiety at the thought. I hate public speaking and, generally, I avoid being 'out there' about anything much at all. I try to say what I want to say through my photography but sometimes, like now, that ain't cutting it.
Part of my hesitancy can be put down to my, um, rather unconventional views. On just about every subject. I gave up having discussions with friends and family about this years ago - it was far too much grief and I got plenty of ridicule and misunderstandings. But I also had some of the most magical, electric, massively positive interactions with like-minded souls. Unfortunately, I then got too busy with 'work'.
Now I'm thinking 'Nuts to it'. I'm going to say it out loud and if anyone listens or not, who cares?
In future blogs, I'm thinking of covering the following subjects: Why Is Modern Art Mostly Such Bullshit and What Is Art Really For Anyway?; Why Scientists Hate Homeopathy (Because It Works); The Natural World Is In Deep Trouble And Why That Matters (Think Volcanoes); What I'm Looking For When I Go Photographing; and plenty of hopefully interesting trivia such as 'Did you know that in the last 150 years, 97% of the great Redwood forests of North West America were chopped down and that only a small percentage of the remaining old-growth forest is protected?'
Or, maybe I won't bother with all that. Doesn't sound like much fun. Maybe I'll just post links to some truly far-out websites. Try this, or this, or this.
Here's a quote from my Spiritual Teacher Adi Da Samraj just to get us going about Art:
The circumstance of existence, in and of itself, is disheartening. That is why it is necessary to do art. Art is an essential response to the conditions of existence, a means by which limitations are transcended, Reality is Realized, Truth is Realized, Light is found. Without that activity — there is nothing but this intrusion of changes and death. Participation in an art form should be at least as great as that art form. Art should change you. That is the whole purpose of it. True art heals. True art restores equanimity. Art must regenerate the sense of well-being. That is its true purpose. When art is really useful, it serves this ultimate process of healing, well-being, higher sympathy, and Spiritual Awakening.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
That's pretty much my experience: even when I'm feeling unhappy or things are really difficult at work or home or I'm just bored, if I make the effort to get out into Nature and shoot, I'll come back with some great images -maybe- but the main thing is that I feel transformed. It does help of course, if the images are good.
Actually, there's another side to this coin: go out in the wrong disposition, or at the wrong time, or in the wrong weather, or at the wrong time of year, or the wrong location, or not having had a decent meal and the whole thing is a dead loss. And what does the word 'wrong' mean? Wrong for ME at that moment.
That's the hidden, esoteric side of any art - finding how it works for us as individual artists, knowing ourselves, knowing the subtle patterns that tell you a particular location, weather front, mood, wildflower, bodily state or whatever will or won't work out. Research and experience are necessary - both about oneself and about the external world.
Just to contradict myself completely, but sometimes, when it doesn't look like there's a shot, especially when I've made the effort to get out, it's a matter of finding the shot. I sometimes think that's the difference between being amateur and professional: amateurs can say 'there's nothing here to shoot', pro's have to come back with something, no matter what, or they don't eat.
In a nutshell, my work these days can be summarised thus: it's all about what I DON'T photograph. The more I discriminate and listen to the quiet voice inside that tells me what I should and shouldn't shoot and when I should or shouldn't shoot it, the more successful my images are. The more they are 'Art'. Whatever that is.
Howgill Fells, Yorkshire Dales
Quick summary of recent shoots: Yorkshire Dales - wow, didn't know there was so much to them; Peak District - ditto; Sheffield Station - its water feature is the Las Vegas of the North; Lancashire - much lovelier in parts than you would expect; and inside one of Britain's High Security Mental Institutions - no, not as a patient, just photographing a building, but that was bad enough I can tell you. The stories (she ate 3 of her own children??!! WTF?!?) were hair-raising, the place itself, intense. Do NOT get yourself committed there.
Sheffield Station - Vegas, here we come!
Other news: we've just finished an amazing week showing my panoramic images of Norfolk Wildlife Trust sites on Europe's largest digital projector in Norwich (really). Best show they've ever had there and hopefully inspired a few people to take a bit more care of the natural world. It achieved one of the goals I have for my work: to bring the feel of the natural places into the heart of the city.
Fusion Projector, Norwich - wow.
