Category: #MYLDN

The world might have gone to hell in a handcart but the feed still needs to be fed. The symbiotic relationship between the content devouring beast and the dopamine chasing heart hunter is a dance that never ends as neither party can ever be truly satiated. And as most of us are in both parties we are all stuck in an infinite loop of presentation and consumption.

If you stroll around my hood you can see multiple photo shoots going on all around you. In front of every urban graffitied backdrop or colourfully painted house you will find someone getting their picture taken. It’s actually very difficult to tell these days whether they are professional fashion shoots or just people creating content for their own social media profile.

And there is really not that much difference between the two as they are both about branding, just in the case of the self-generated content it is the people who have made themselves the product and are mostly happy to get paid in digital love rather than actual cashola. Regardless, not even the threat of WWIII is going to stop this image generating juggernaut from its relentless drive down the highway of the United States of Narcissism.

My favourite moment to watch is after the shot has been taken there is the review moment when the photographed and the photographer gather round the screen to establish when the photographed and the photographer gather round the screen to establish My favourite moment to watch is after the shot has been taken there is the review moment when the photographed and the photographer gather round the screen to establish whether they have successfully captured them as they wish to be presented. Are they as sexy and gorgeous as they imagine or are they dejected and disappointed by their own twisted projection of their own self-image?

If the person taking the shot is the partner of the subject you can often see their nervousness as they wait for the nod of approval. More often than not you will see a tinge of disappointment or a general lack of enthusiasm for the results and they return to their positions and start again. This is important shit after all. With this single image you will be judged by people who you have most likely never met and possibly don’t even know. Their validation is everything.

And I am going round taking pictures of these people taking pictures of themselves so am fully intertwined in this experience . I have even become involved in a self-referential photographic paradox. The week before last I posted a photo of a fellow photographer working my turf on portobello rd (see again below) and he had stopped me and asked if he could take my photo to which i said..sure, I just took yours. And he was all like no way and i was all like yes way. and he’s all like shut up. and I was all like..ok, you get the gist..

Anyway I ran into him again at the weekend and we both fessed up we had posted the shots of each other. So I thought I would show you his photo which he took on his lovely very old school camera so that I may include myself in this self-presenting process and show you what’s on the other side of the camera for once. I have to say I have never been both the photographer and simultaneously the subject of my subject before so that’s a first and then again maybe he hasn’t either for that matter.

And there you have it. We are all drowning in documentation although I have to say I really think we should probably be looking outwards rather than inwards as there is some major shit going on we need to pay attention to. Maybe the fact that we have all become so pre-occupied with ourselves is what is really stopping us from dealing with the problems that are looming, you know the ones, the ones that aren’t going away no matter how much we don’t look at them.