Time , photography and life make a curious , powerful cocktail !
Allowing pictures to grow within their time & place really does change how we see and interpret them , good pictures appear to become more potent when neglected and left to decant in hindsight …
A photographers original intent , perspective and context can and does get lost as change and time march on , significance is frequently magnified as we re-examine what we once considered to be “familiar” through new eyes ,
The team here at UK Street Photography , that’s me , myself and I have been reassessing the archive , rediting , junking and shuffling the pack that I once thought was set in stone , my The State Of Britain brexit project has absorbed parts of my Testing Times Covid project making The State Of Britain project a more complete comprehensive series , when combined both projects represent more than 400 works (2016 - 2022) .
The Another Day Off project has evolved into the England , the state of play 2012 - 2016 project , I now see this study of English leisure time as the calm before the storm of uncertainty , England at its best in many ways , playful , optimistic and funny ! These pictures represent a time when England wore a smile on its face …
Looking back over this 10 year “Monster” body of work I see 2016 as the time of change , this is when the music slowed , 2020 became the year when the music stopped altogether , creating a silence of uncertainty !
Having made photographs of almost anything and everything over the last decade I am at last able to see the “significance” of the individual captures and the overall strength , context and narrative …
This is a day to day record of what has just happened , time and 20 / 20 hindsight has eventually revealed all …
The new Limboland , a state of mind project is in progress and possess a different aesthetic to all of the work that proceeds it , although this square format / mono approach is no more than a return to my teenage 1970’s pictorial photographic roots , strange how this approach feels right for these dark uncertain times…
Truth be told it has taken me ten years to understand my own work and how it relates to my life , I knew in 2012 that I could only build projects one pic at a time , I proceeded with blind faith , hope and optimism with few ideas of what lay ahead , I instinctively knew my direction of travel but the route was sketchy …
I just got on the bus , crossed my fingers and held on tight , I could never of imagined “The Final Destination” …
MORE…
If your blessed with a bit more time feel free to visit highlights from Limboland , a state of mind , England , the state of play. 2012 - 2016 or The State Of Britain , 2016 - 2022 pictures , they represent the most turbulent years in modern British history and ten years of my life…