Well its almost done, 2014 has been and gone .

Personally and photographically the year has been okay for me. I managed to get through the year without confrontation on the street and captured a few decent pix, one of which will be exhibited in a major London gallery next year.

Recognition of my photographic efforts is not that important to me as I believe in my work and create it for its own sake rather than the pursuit of praise or worse still money. Having said that it is reassuring when others show appreciation for the images I make, as I , like many other togs have times of doubt and suffer creative lows, its good to know I'm not wasting my time and that others are connecting with the work. At the end of the day Exhibitions are a great way to increase awareness of my pictures.

As the years pass the one thing I become more concious of is the value of time, when I was in my twenty s I believed I would live forever and lacked any sort of urgency in my photographic endeavours.. I now value time above everything, as the penny has finally dropped that life is not infinite and a time will come when only my pictures remain.

This realisation certainly helps me to focus and prioritise.

I understand that some new togs need to develop a level of confidence before going alone on the street and may choose to join others in order to help develop a level of independence and creative vision. I am planning to offer a few one to one Street Photography sessions during 2015, this will be a very limited service and will hopefully help aspiring Street togs get off on the right foot.

I have a number of shoots planned for 2015 and will probably return to my native North East in order to complete my "Another day Off" series.

The shot below was inspired by the long shadows offered by the winter sun, it was the last picture I made in 2014.

Happy New Year !

David Barrett