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Wake up, Live







This blog has suffered over the last 12 months from life events getting in the way of my creativity. However I feel I might be back on track after an inspirational jolt in the form of a trip to Arles, France. It might sound like something of a busman's holiday (I love that phrase, puts me in mind of 1960's Ealing films for some reason) as it was all about looking at photography exhibitions, taking pictures and talking about photography with my good friend and travelling companion Mike. It was a holiday but on reflection it was also pretty intense in that we saw all of the exhibitions in Les Rencontres d'Arles except one, and went off taking photographs between shows. We were looking, thinking, digesting the work of others, then going off exploring the city and making our own pictures. I like that your brain becomes a melting pot in this situation, stirring together a range of influences. There is the general hum in our own heads, the things that we think about all the time that make us who we are. This collides with what we see in front of us, the freshness of a new place and all that that provides, different light, smells, sounds, tastes, language, architecture, etc. I think even things like tap water that leaves your skin and hair feeling different and the itch of a mosquito bite can change your thinking. On top of this we were constantly viewing other photographer's ways of reflecting on what it is to be human and how photography, art and storytelling are part of that. Hopefully some of these intersections were at play as we made our pictures, I'll let you be the judge of that, but I certainly feel alive again.
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