villa win in the snow

dreams and nightmares - no. 20

in search of new worlds

My first memory is learning to crawl. I followed the pattern on the carpet until I came to a spinning-top lodged beneath a sideboard. I remember the noise it made when I set it in motion.

Here are some views from the perspective of a young lady setting off on another adventure.

dreams and nightmares - no. 19

mr. fuzzy face

Forgive me for yesterday's posting. I just needed to get something out of my system before setting off on a new journey!  Let's start in earnest then on the assignment of the week -  seeing through the eyes of the child. 

To my mind this doesn't mean taking photos of children or of things associated with children. Instead, it means taking photos as if I am a child. Which of course I am. Just a very big one who needs to re-establish part of his identity.

When we're very young the world seems beautifully and magically confused! Each new day is a fresh challenge to make sense of the millions of patterns, shades, shapes and images that fill our eyes to the brim.  But then we grow older and we begin to impose an increasingly rigid set of rules on what we take in.  We focus on those things we deem important, filtering out everything else until it fades and disappears from sight.

I believe the task of the photographer is to overthrow this deadening hierarchy of vision, to seek out fresh ways of seeing. So I'm really looking forward to this challenge!

To help me break the bonds I've decided on to follow one simple guide-line.  Spontaneity - there's to be no detailed planning, no shoots lasting more than ten minutes and no fiddling with the camera controls ... unless, of course, it's to deliberately set up the camera incorrectly.

So here's Wednesday's child - mr. fuzzy face. He's not in focus, but does that really matter?

dreams and nightmares - no. 18

the scream

Our homework for our Photo Group class this week is the world through the eyes of a child.

So here I am - four years old on my father's knee and a grown man by a computer screen.  It's complicated and the best way I can explain is by sharing a post on the fore-runner to this blog.

Click here to read.

This is how I feel when I remember the knock on our door by the police officers who came to break the news.

dreams and nightmares - no. 17

severed

Sometimes photographs fall like blessings from heaven. Tonight is Photo Social night and on my way into the class I come across some staff moving various boxes to a different location.  The contents include some dummy heads used for practice by trainee hairdressers...