'AS I SEE IT'
Welcome to my site
This collection of images contains quite a varied assortment of genres and I sincerely hope all the more interesting for it. There are areas of photography into which I don't venture, the exclusion of those from this collection will say much about my preferences, but I sometimes do worry that I don't see myself as a photographer of one particular genre, whether it be street, landscape, black and white etc.. Should I be concerned about it? Does it matter?
I'm an amateur photographer, and after quite a few years of serious pursuit my field of interest has become more focused, but I just don't feel the need to specialise, and I'm definitely becoming more relaxed about it!
Photography, like all art, is really subjective. The experience of belonging to a local Photographic Society has taught me that for sure. The moral must be, don't try and please other people, please yourself, and I'm sure this produces the best results.
I recently heard the author Jay Griffiths talking on Radio 3. It was a discussion on ‘wildness’ in music, primarily the music of Sibelius but her thoughts resonate so well for photography.
To paraphrase her argument; “the heart of artistic endeavour is not the dutiful portraying of something, it’s not copying, it’s turning and the word turn is such a simple word…… it’s an extraordinarily deep way of looking at art in that you take what life gives you personally and you turn it, it’s still there but it’s transformed. That is the heart of what all art needs to try to do, otherwise it’s a photocopy”
An aspiration indeed.
I'm a member of the Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society, based here in Nottingham and if you are looking to join a wonderfully supportive and friendly group of photographers, look no further!
Check us out on www.nops.org.uk