Mia sees...
*Please read*
Throughout this project, there's been a distillation process. A subtle but sure refining of what it is I'm trying to do, and what it is I'm trying to see. I've always said that the book itself was never intended for anything greater than for me to end up with an awesome coffee table book for my house, and if anyone else wanted to join in along the way they could. With that in mind, whilst the photos have been about others, I've always allowed myself a hint of selfishness in my goals for the idea.
And as the project winds on, on what appears to be a three year treck, things change, it become fluid, adapts to the variances in me, in the people, and in the way I see them. My focus once defined but with a little breadth, I think draws closer with every shoot I do, and with every new person I speak to about it all. On a more personal note however, one of the things I'm finding difficult to deal with is how my own personal path affects the images. Inevitable obviously, but these photographs are meant to be about the people in them, not some means to vent my own teenage angst.
And it is here, that I reach a crossroads...
Of the poeple I've photographed lately, I've felt more challenged and more questioned. Whether this is a personal vulnerability or a mark of the greater perception of my recent sitters I'm not sure. Yet I've had everything from one person sit through my pitch so to speak, and then ask questions for an hour that cut concisely through all the patter and peeled back the lid on the real drive behind it all, and then told me to have more courage in what I'm doing. I've had one person who I so dearly wanted, who I was sure was a certainty who listened and blew the idea right out the water. I've had another sceptical of the idea of the project, but not of me, and yet another who's been more able than anyone I've ever met to question and make me doubt who I am as a photographer, and yet still give me the OK to shoot, confident in the ability to show you guys something real about them.
So the truth is, I'm getting questioned about all this, even by the people sitting for the photos. Mia here is one such source of confusion. Mia's someone I click with, and who I can happily talk all day to about pretty much anything. Mia here, is an artist. Not one of those 'I make pretty pictures, sell them in batches of 25 and call myself an artist, and by the way I do gift cards too' artists, but the real deal. Someone who lives and breathes through things creative. She sees coffee cups in the sink and something about how they're laid out will catch her eye, she dresses with more style than you can shake a stick at, can make something visually wonderful from any bloody medium you want (and I do mean any) and somehow just seems to find a way to question, visually, philosophically or aesthetically pretty much anything you can think of, either with fine based argument or just through gut feeling. She can, quite frankly, unpick and unravel anything and everything about what I do, and that in itself is a deeply, deeply admirable thing to see.
And hell man, it scares me. Never before have I shot someone like this and actually been left with no clue as to what I see, she sees or anyone else sees. I'm left in a tailspin. It's both a good thing and a terifying thing. Yet there's one thing that pleases me more, and it occured to me over the last three days since I finished this shot trying to think of what to type that could even vaguely do justice to someone quite this cool, and that's that with a fresh eye, and some removal from the photos, I come back and I see what I started to photograph just over a year ago.
I see beauty. I see nothing obvious, but the pursuit of trying to photograph the tiny little things that become special and loved about someone. I see the hidden gems, the secret little things that make you catch your breath. I see leans of the shoulders that only the lucky men (or women) know, I see the look that could mean anything, but means just one thing to those lucky enough to know. I see simplicity and elegance, I see everything and nothing. I see someone, something, somethings even, that someone out there has fallen for, and just a tiny, tiny slice of explanation of that to you, and me, the viewer.
What I see is a distillation. What I see is someone who has and possibly will continue to, challenge me and my photography, and I see her photographed in a way, completely unbeknown to me, as purely as the original concept.
Amongst a flight of ups and downs, I see some elegance fighting through the clouds.
Mia sees...
*Please read*
Throughout this project, there's been a distillation process. A subtle but sure refining of what it is I'm trying to do, and what it is I'm trying to see. I've always said that the book itself was never intended for anything greater than for me to end up with an awesome coffee table book for my house, and if anyone else wanted to join in along the way they could. With that in mind, whilst the photos have been about others, I've always allowed myself a hint of selfishness in my goals for the idea.
And as the project winds on, on what appears to be a three year treck, things change, it become fluid, adapts to the variances in me, in the people, and in the way I see them. My focus once defined but with a little breadth, I think draws closer with every shoot I do, and with every new person I speak to about it all. On a more personal note however, one of the things I'm finding difficult to deal with is how my own personal path affects the images. Inevitable obviously, but these photographs are meant to be about the people in them, not some means to vent my own teenage angst.
And it is here, that I reach a crossroads...
Of the poeple I've photographed lately, I've felt more challenged and more questioned. Whether this is a personal vulnerability or a mark of the greater perception of my recent sitters I'm not sure. Yet I've had everything from one person sit through my pitch so to speak, and then ask questions for an hour that cut concisely through all the patter and peeled back the lid on the real drive behind it all, and then told me to have more courage in what I'm doing. I've had one person who I so dearly wanted, who I was sure was a certainty who listened and blew the idea right out the water. I've had another sceptical of the idea of the project, but not of me, and yet another who's been more able than anyone I've ever met to question and make me doubt who I am as a photographer, and yet still give me the OK to shoot, confident in the ability to show you guys something real about them.
So the truth is, I'm getting questioned about all this, even by the people sitting for the photos. Mia here is one such source of confusion. Mia's someone I click with, and who I can happily talk all day to about pretty much anything. Mia here, is an artist. Not one of those 'I make pretty pictures, sell them in batches of 25 and call myself an artist, and by the way I do gift cards too' artists, but the real deal. Someone who lives and breathes through things creative. She sees coffee cups in the sink and something about how they're laid out will catch her eye, she dresses with more style than you can shake a stick at, can make something visually wonderful from any bloody medium you want (and I do mean any) and somehow just seems to find a way to question, visually, philosophically or aesthetically pretty much anything you can think of, either with fine based argument or just through gut feeling. She can, quite frankly, unpick and unravel anything and everything about what I do, and that in itself is a deeply, deeply admirable thing to see.
And hell man, it scares me. Never before have I shot someone like this and actually been left with no clue as to what I see, she sees or anyone else sees. I'm left in a tailspin. It's both a good thing and a terifying thing. Yet there's one thing that pleases me more, and it occured to me over the last three days since I finished this shot trying to think of what to type that could even vaguely do justice to someone quite this cool, and that's that with a fresh eye, and some removal from the photos, I come back and I see what I started to photograph just over a year ago.
I see beauty. I see nothing obvious, but the pursuit of trying to photograph the tiny little things that become special and loved about someone. I see the hidden gems, the secret little things that make you catch your breath. I see leans of the shoulders that only the lucky men (or women) know, I see the look that could mean anything, but means just one thing to those lucky enough to know. I see simplicity and elegance, I see everything and nothing. I see someone, something, somethings even, that someone out there has fallen for, and just a tiny, tiny slice of explanation of that to you, and me, the viewer.
What I see is a distillation. What I see is someone who has and possibly will continue to, challenge me and my photography, and I see her photographed in a way, completely unbeknown to me, as purely as the original concept.
Amongst a flight of ups and downs, I see some elegance fighting through the clouds.