I can’t relax because I don’t know what expection is..even if it’s good.
All photographs taken this week of abandoned objects were within a 100 yards or so of my flat. I am currently in a rehab program for people with long covid/cfs and they talk about how important it is to stay within your ‘3ft world’. This is to encourage you to just focus on the step in front you. Don’t look too far forward, don’t look too far back, don’t look at what other people are doing, just concentrate on where you’re at in the present moment and what you can do now. I have found this very helpful. It keeps me on the task at hand. It stops me comparing myself to others, or indeed to my former self. And it generates a level of acceptance crucial for coping with a reduced existence. Although I do believe everyone could benefit from staying in their 3 foot world. It annihilates the regret of the past and evaporates the anxiety surrounding the future.
I used to take photographs all over London. I could visit multiple postcodes in a single day but currently I am confined to the block that I live on. But rather than lament what is not, I now focus on what is. I look for beauty and wonder within my 3 foot world. Or rather my 300 foot world which is my currently doable walking distance.
So even though my terrain is small I get very excited when I find something I want to photograph. It might not seem worth photographing to most people but it has ignited a flame in my imagination and that is all I need to work..
I have fortunately always been fixated with abandoned objects and there are always plenty of those on offer on my local streets…I just always think that this is not what their creator intended for them. I think of all the meetings that would’ve happened to discuss their style and structure, presentation and promotion, never imagining the one day it would just become discarded rubbish. Ultimately that is obviously how all things end, even the very greatest of things but scattered as litter on the street was not meant to be where they were viewed, or rather ignored. No-one pays them any attention. except for me. I see their former beauty. I see their former glory. By Photographing them I give them a modicum of meaning at the very moment when they have none. I’m just nice like that…
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 :)
Well I gotta say it’s good to be back..and thanks to everyone who sent me a welcome back message..meant a lot to know you’re still out there. And apologies for the long absence..let’s just say it took me a little longer than expected. I’ve been on a hell of a journey..coincidentally to hell and back and when I’ve got the energy I’ll tell you all the gory details but basically I got a shit ton worse and was so bad I couldn’t leave my flat for months…which is a bit of drawback for a street photographer.
Oh, what do you do?
I’m a housebound street photographer
Oh, how does that work?
Umm, not very well to be honest..
(this is obviously an imagined conversation because I wasn’t meeting anyone between the bedroom and the living room)
I almost liked (almost being the operative word) the twister irony of being a housebound street photographer and did think of just posting pictures from my extensive archive but it felt a little disingenuous to be pretending to be out an about when I wasn’t. I also didn’t even have the energy to sit at the computer so that put a kibosh on that anyway.
So I’m pleased to say I’m back on the streets although still can’t go very far. These photographs were all taken within about 100 yards or so of my flat, but due to this restrictive element I realised that the smaller the world the more things are magnified. It is quite incredible. what you observe in a very short distance. Technically you see less but you actually see more. (stick that on a tea tag)
It will probably be mostly photos and not much chat for a bit whilst I settle in although I would like to say that I took the above photo to be an encouraging sign that art was on the streets (literally) and that was where I belonged. Hopefully I can get up to speed as I continue along this path to recovery…onwards!
Sorry folks for lack of transmission…took another dive so been recuperating…to be honest I haven’t really found my feet since the beginning of this year and have been mostly housebound but was determined to continue doing this blog as gave me a focus and a purpose and kept me connected to the outside world. And I managed to maintain for the most part..albeit in heavily restricted circumstance. Every day I try to get out of the house and go for a short walk, to stretch, to attempt the microscopic amount of exercise I can currently tolerate and to stop myself going bat shit crazy being stuck indoors 24/7.
So all photographs you have seen this year were taken within 1500 steps of my flat as that has been my total capacity for walking. And yet, as small as my world has shrunk I found I still had a vast array of material for observation, thanks largely to the teeming life present on Portobello Rd. And no matter how shit I felt I always saw something I wanted to try and photograph. And a lot slipped through my net but I still managed to capture some gems along the way. When I am out the other side of this thing my next photo book is going to be called 1500 steps and will show that even in the smallest of spaces there is always still so much to see…
But right now I need to focus on my recovery some more so am going to take an extended break..as my dedicated followers will know I always take off August anyway so have just started my summer hiatus a little early this year…
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.
