As is my new weekend morning tradition, I took a copy of B+W photography magazine and the iPad to the refurbished Great Western Pub/Coffee Cake establishment. Whilst checking Facebook an article popped up about of new TikTok Trend of “Performative reading” where people are taking photos of feminist, sensitive Guys reading books in public spaces. Some women have even got into that act by photographing themselves dressed up as men reading, wearing little canvas bags with film cameras inside. I had to put my fucking magazine back in my canvas bag, that canvas bag with the Nikon FM2 inside and a few rolls of film. I’ve become a meme, my life’s now a joke.
Anyway, A whole load of nothing worth mentioning has happened since my last blog post, despite the melancholy I am closer than ever to reaching my photographic nirvana of morphing into the artworld rather than stuck in the photography box. A couple of weeks back I had a blog post prepared on a technique that changed everything, except I held back from posting. Time and time again I find something that pushes me further only to find the effect died, and to some extent that happened again.
The last few weeks it has been Landscapes that are my passion. It is funny that after a few weeks of working with models I lose interest in Landscapes. My interest cycles between the two, with one having little interest whilst I am perusing that other. On a visit to my local art gallery, where there happens to be some interesting walks through the fields, the guy on the desk curiously asked what I was photographing. I joked that I could fill an album with my images from the place. That brief exchange suddenly made everything make sense. The field in question has some resonance with me, something otherworldly. I’ve so many images already forming a body of work right under my nose.
Since that conversation I decided to do something, I often talk about but never start, a photographic sketchbook. Starting it has made the biggest change to how I work. It aligns neatly with everything I have talked about in my blog. I am no longer making that one off nice print but continually trying to express a sense of place in the field and that’s all I have become focussed upon, the art of trying to express the place, less so the act of making photographs.
The sketch book format stops me from caring too deeply about the act of making a Print, it keeps me free and loose. It is a mindset that liberates me from the standard photographic process. I have limited intention of showing anybody, that adds an extra layer of freedom.
Around the time I was going to post about this new approach, my creativity went down the toilet, not for lack of effort and enthusiasm. Whilst sketch booking might of unlocked another level in the quest of art, staying in a creative mental state seems a skill that if not engaged; nullifies all else. I feel staying in a creative state could be something to focus on during 2026.
A flash of photographic understanding did come to me whilst embarking on my new methodology – stop looking for the perfect tones and instead look for the perfect desired effect. Something I think about is “Lenswork” magazine. I am a subscriber and love it, except I never love any of the prints inside, all a little too Ansel Adams. Masterful darkroom printers and Artists who use darkroom techniques seem on opposite mindsets. Every step towards making a good darkroom print seems to steer you towards creating a very traditional print. I just feel no traditional pure artist would ever work that way.
Falling flat on my face, despite that above revelation, my early results are a bit shit. The more traditional prints look better but I feel I have stumbled upon something that will only push me further to explore in future. If nothing else, I am starting to dodge and burn more trying to build the effect I was after rather than staying too literal.
This weekend I was going to make the print that would come to define my 2025 progress, a print very different from what I have done before, only it all fucked up. In some ways I feel this is good, the challenge remains. That one print of a field that transcends its literal representation and becomes undeniably something other. The whole concept of how to achieve that now lies in tatters. I feel like I need a couple of weeks grieving for my failed idea, regroup with myself and try again with new eyes.
I finally feel I am a beginner artist, My works not at a level I want but that doesn’t matter. It’s the mindset shift that’s taken me years. Stop thinking of photographs, instead fight to express something you feel, repeatedly again and again and in a world where nobody is looking.
