I almost got a touch emotional in the Darkroom today. I was reminded of why I love analogue photography. Attaching too much of your soul to an art, when art in general, you feel a crap imposter at, can bring you down. With a slightly awkward feeling anybody reading this is probably looking at the resulting images and thinking “hmmm”, right now I’m starting to see what I have been trying to achieve, something I thought I might fail to translate into an image. It feels very “Me” and is all starting to link into a solid project.
Over the last few weeks I've also slowly started refining my darkroom printing. Whilst far from masterful; I seem to of come to a look that works for the subject. Today I really started to get instinctive on what images needed to make them work.Whilst I was fairly happy with my fieldscape images, I was quickly sensing a dead end; Theres only so many fucking grass photographs you can stick into an art book. The solution was far simpler than I realised. I already had plans to photograph hedgerows, footpaths and other aspects that make up the English countryside. Combining them all will create something that won’t bore the pants of everybody.
Im also becoming more mature on my psychology of image taking, if that’s even a thing. Over the last few years Ive been seriously stunted by refusing to take images that I know won’t be great. Now I’ve learnt to quit that mindset. The funny reality is the images that I know won’t be good, still sux. The subtle difference is that you need to be making many images, pushing them as far as you can, and thinking about them to make that next big hitter image, just that little bit more unique. It's probably a post for another day about what to do with those ‘B Side’ images. For now they help to paint an atmosphere, building blocks for the project. Maybe later Ill cut them out, but for now they’re important.
