Can your personal photography help you to beat the futility ?
If your reading this today I assume you make photographs that reflect life , preferring to document more of the “ups” than the “downs” , its only natural to enhance the memories of our “Good Times” with tangible photographic evidence , everyone’s family photo-album is heavily populated with images of summer holidays , birthday cakes , grannies , pets ,children and Christmas trees , in fact many of the 35mm films developed in the UK back in the day would frequently feature a Christmas tree at each end of the film , from different years !
Thankfully things have moved on , personal photography has become part of almost eveyone’s everyday to the point that photography has reached saturation point …
This might sound harsh but photography by the masses for the masses has reached the “So What” moment in much the same way as any common language is taken for granted until “the poets” make us look twice at the beauty and significance of the words !
Is your photographic cat still sat on the mat or is it challenging you like Schroders hypothetical feline friend ?
If you want your photography to be all “Christmas trees & Grannies” that is up to you but your photography can become so much more , identifying what you want your photography to be is the first step towards ownership of your photography rather than a wholesale acceptance of your membership of the generic photographic herd , we are living through extraordinary times , life is not all waterfalls , sunsets and kittens , your camera has the potential to become a powerful voice , try to interpret your everyday photographically , show and shoot life how you see it and how you feel about it ,shoot it like it is !
Keep it local , keep it personal and keep it real , your photography could help you feel empowered as you express yourself and push back photographically !
The established masters of photography are either very old or dead , it’s time for todays serious photographers to step up and record their own here and now , the UK has become a social landscape of lower living standards , industrial disputes and rampant inflation , we are all involved and have become part of this ever changing chaotic evolving narrative , like it or not !
Uncertainty is the only certainty right now , photographers can beat the futility by engaging with their own everyday challenges and injustices photographically , tomorrows archives need to be created today , a long walk starts with one step , don’t be a bystander …
You may not be able to change the the world but you can become a witness and show others what is happening now …
Beat the futility , become a poet , find significance in the ongoing chaos …
Don’t whinge about it , photograph it …
MORE…
If your blessed with a bit more time feel free to visit highlights from my Another Day Off project , The State Of Britain series or The Testing Times pictures , they represent the most turbulent years in modern British history and ten years of my life…
Forty of my Foto What I Took Blogs are still available too …