This brings back so many memories...

I've not watched the video, just wanted to listen to the track and couldn't find it on Spotify (I know, wtf?!).

...for me, making photographs is also an act of exploring, so I may have ideas I want to work on, but I don’t know exactly what it is I’m looking for – if I did, I feel like to a certain extent, there would be no point in making the images.

I adore her photos and she comes out with these things that sound so much like they've been plucked from my head. Only then made far more concise and sensible than my own rambling thoughts.

I am interested in how we structure our personal worlds, in how we imbue them with a sense of direction, purpose, and security when, in fact, we can actually control very few things. The idea that we’re not working towards anything, that completion and wholeness are unattainable fictions, and that chaos rules, is a scary possibility to consider. The world can unravel at any moment - no matter how perfect your yard is.

Our feelings are elusive. It may take us years to know why we do certain things, or feel certain ways. Because of this, we’re often operating without reason. We believe we know why we’re doing what we do, but, in fact, we’re blind. We’re magicians. My reality is an illusion that I’ve created. I may recognize it as an illusion, or I may not; I may continue to accept it, and to call it reality, thus rendering it real. Or it may vanish before me like the fleeting chimera it was.

I want to show the world in a way that recognizes the fragility of our constructions, that accepts, and perhaps welcomes the discovery of a torn veneer. My subjects accept the failure of order; they sense their own inability to control the world, and yet, they continue to try. Their world is marked by both a loss of comfort and the search for new and unusual methods of consolation, despite the impossibility of complete consolation.

- Ahndraya Parlato, statement.


I've disappeared a bit. I've not taken any photos in a little while, but that's ok. I'm not avoiding it, that would be a problem I feel. I've been reading and I've been writing and I've been thinking. I'm hoping that doing these three things will make future photos more... something...

It's good to pause now and then to catch up with yourself.

To Do List:

Write down thoughts and ideas
Learn to drive
Get a new job
See more of the UK
Go to the beach as much as possible
Do an MA
See more of the world

I know she's 'only' a cat, but she does make life a lot more bearable.

Morvern Callar

Dicking about on the moon.

Sometimes I pan without realising. I like it.

Sometimes I’m thinking about art, more specifically photography as you may guess, and I get frustrated at how difficult it is. Finding a subject you’re interested (and you hope might interest others), then an appropriate and compelling approach and then actually doing it WELL? Seems impossible sometimes.

And yet there are other times, when I’m thinking about photography, when it seems disgustingly easy and simple. That’s not to say I’ve suddenly found a subject and approach or anything I just look at images I admire or ones of my own I’m particularly proud of and they seem so easy.

Today I’m feeling very much the former.

I know what I like, I know what I’m interested in but none of it seems fresh enough. So the approach would be even more crucial and I don’t know how to find an approach that would work. If the approach isn’t something that stands out then do the images only become interesting once the world they portray has disappeared?

But perhaps I am over thinking the whole thing. Maybe I should just shoot what I want and forget about compelling approaches and technical standards.

Who gives a fuck anyway, right?

My mum has made banana bread/cake again and it smells SO good.

The kitchen is on the ground floor, I'm on the second in the loft and I can smell it like it were in the same room as me.

This is something I really like about living here. The smells.

The smell of the washing power my mum uses and the food she cooks. My room has that familiar homey smell that I don't normally notice but I miss when I'm away.

I want some banana cake so bad...

Ahh insomnia, we meet again....

I Think I'm kind of in love with you...

, originally uploaded by alice beasley.

, originally uploaded by alice beasley.

, originally uploaded by alice beasley.

, originally uploaded by Jocelyn Catterson.

, originally uploaded by Missy Prince.

Q: What inspires you to take a photograph? What are you trying to capture?

A: I like to pretend I live in a fantasy. In a photograph you can cut away everything that makes a moment part of reality and in the end it appears that you live in a more beautiful or interesting place. So I guess what I try to capture in a photograph is something that is more beautiful than my real life so I can create a pretend life where I live on a mountain top and speak to the trees. I also just like taking photos of my friends and our adventures.

...

Q: You tend to incorporate a lot of landscapes into your photographs. Why is this?

A: It's easier to romanticise the world in the wilderness.

Alice Beasley. Interview by Freckled Cup, October 2009

I think I maybe should have left some shadow under her eyes? I dunno. I'm bored of looking at it now. Retouching freckled skin is not easy. I didn't want to get rid of them, that would have been the easiest way of dealing with it. My predisposition to prefer more natural images makes it very difficult to try and do high fashion style retouching. Annoying.