All shots this week taken within a 300 foot radius of my home and the only connection between these people is their geographical proximity to me. I am blessed as I have amazing characters living on my doorstep. Not literally obvs, they wouldn’t all fit on but it means that even covering the small distance I am currently capable of means that I will invariably see someone who I think is worth photographing. And bear in mind I see many more than I actually take pictures of but aren’t always able to get the shot.
A lot of times I think that I should maybe just leave these people to go about their day but then I see an incredible characterful face or some visual configuration that I just can’t let it go and feel compelled to capture them. To what purpose? I don’t really know. I guess I’m just an aficionado on the human form in all of its incarnations and like a butterfly collector I want to somehow preserve their magnificence.
And without these great local folk in my immediacy I wouldn’t have much to put in this blog so that’s a touch. So please bear with whilst I have this terrain restricted service..hoping for some greater capacity soon…
Someone adorned this tree with beaded necklaces all over it..they’ve been there for months now and no-one has taken them. People clearly respected this random guerilla art installation. It makes me smile every time I walk past it. I would love to know who and why but at the same time I kinda love the mystery. Explanations can be so limiting but the imagination is infinite.
All photographs this week are taken of people I encountered within a 100 yards of my home. When you are mostly housebound you are starved of human contact. It is a very solitary existence but I am incredibly lucky as know a lot of the people on my street to say hello to and some to have a lil stop and chat with.
And so even though I was often only able to get to the end of the road and back I would more times than not see someone I could interact with, even in the smallest of ways. Didn’t have to be long. Didn’t have to be meaningful but it meant a lot to me. And it was great just to hear someone’s voice that wasn’t my own. My experience has meant that I have become very comfortable talking to myself but its a poor substitute for an actual dialogue with another human being. And it’s also a little disconcerting.
So these brief encounters with my neighbours became my lifeline and am truly grateful for I think I would have gone a little insane without them. Obviously fessing up to talking to myself all the time doesn’t really lend much support to that theory but there you go.
In a recent study on loneliness they discovered that it wasn’t just our strong relations with immediate family and close friends that mattered to our well being but also what they called our weak connections. These are small interactions you have with neighbours, passersby, local store workers and park people if you have a dog and apparently they are as vital as we are social animals who need to feel part of a group. They might seem slight but they make a big difference.
For me they were a godsend because I was not well enough to have people visit for the most part and I also couldn’t really handle talking for more than a couple of minutes. And weirdly being alone for vast quantities of time hasn’t made me less social, it has made me even more so. I always enjoyed talking to people but I would now literally chat to anyone because I have been so deprived. I obviously had Mrs B who I could never have got thru this without her but invariably by the time she got home I was toast and couldn’t even talk so am so thankful for my weak connections as they gave me strength when I needed it the most…
The top photo is Phil who lives two doors down from us and he is a lovely man who is always pottering around on the street so see him more than most so was always appreciative of our lil chats on the stoop as was often the only contact I had. And for the record the other people this week I do not know and did not speak to. They were merely passing. As was I.
So much for pictures only to ease meself in..I was just excited to be back :)
Caught on camera this week. Them by me and me by them.
I like the contrast in this shot above as she is pissed off about it but he seems chuffed.
They all feature in my ongoing series ‘dead in the mincers’ which is cockney rhyming slang for staring right at you…mincers = mince pies =eyes. Not really difficult to see why it’s a dying language.
