Legacy

So recently I've been thinking about legacy. I should first define what I mean by legacy to avoid confusion; essentially it is something that will outlast me. Something that I can consider a gift to the world. This isn't a new topic of thought for me, but I have been giving it slightly more thought for a couple of reasons I shall discuss later.

I have asked myself why leaving a legacy is so important to me on several occasions and have come to the conclusion that it's just one of the few romanticised notions I allow myself to divulge in now. It could even be attributed to my religious upbringing in opposition to my stark atheism as an adult. Let me explain that: As a child I was raised to believe in life after death and that life is a test to see whether you get into heaven, hell or purgatory. Now I realise that is utter tosh I know that once I die, I am dead. That's it. Kapeesh. I'm not going to do anything after I die but that doesn't mean I have to be forgotten. 

I think that's actually one of my biggest fears, dying and being lost to the annums of time like countless people before me. I want to be in that minuscule number of people who are remembered long after they die, and the even smaller number that are remembered for good reasons. Let's be clear don't want a statue in bronze, and I'm trying very hard not to convey that what this boils down to is an exercise in narcissism, because that's exactly what I would read it as, but I want to leave my mark on this world... well, maybe not this world.

One of the reasons I've been thinking about this is (alongside Catalogue, for those of you who have read a couple of my other posts) Mars One. This is, in it's very basic version, the plan to send people to populate Mars. Sounds cool right? Well, to me it does. I could genuinely be a named part of human history. Now, applications don't open until late this year, but I shall be keeping an eye on this one.

HumanCentricity...

In one of my recent posts I talked about a few projects that I am currently working on. Here's an update on one...

The working title is HumanCentricity and so far it's very loose. I have been shooting parts of it for a couple of years; which, by the way, makes it a ballache of biblical proportions to find the negs for it. I have decided the concept will be best served in a book, possibly with exhibition prints but that's a way away. The project aims to show how even though humans account for a relatively small percentage of the world's biological population we have had such a huge impact on it. This will be a multi-faceted piece as it's a fairly complex issue to explore, being quite obtuse. I am far more sure of one element of the work than any of the others at the moment so that's what I shall be sharing with you.

A Car Crash and A Road

The above image and title is an early idea of what I want to do with this part of the project; a juxtaposition between expectation and representation. The most obvious expectation of human interference in this frame would be that the road sign has obviously been damaged, most likely by a car crash. However, there is human interference in every square millimetre of this image which we are so used to we don't even see any more. The most overlooked yet incredibly obvious is the presence of a road. This training to not see is what I want to challenge the viewer on in this part of HC. 

The text size is also something I thought about (mainly due to working alongside a wonderful photographer, craftswoman and all-around person, Simona last year.) The small reference to the car crash in relation to the large road I think is key as it highlights that while the car crash is there, and the expectation is for the photograph to be about this, more weight is applied to the notion of the road being the real subject of the image.

I have some more images for this project which need collating (yawn) and at least a day of going through my lovely negative bag which is now overflowing, but for now that's all you're getting!

Locked Out...

This blog is called Photography etc. With this in mind this post will most definitely be filed under etc. so those of you who read this blog (the delightful few that you are) purely for Photography may not want to indulge in this particular rant (therefore cutting the market for this post to virtually zero.)

I LOVE ice hockey; I cannot get enough of it. It's one of my only regrets that I didn't pull my finger out while I was at uni and strap on some skates for a team, however financial limitations didn't really give me an option. One day, I hope to move to Canada and play in a decent recreational league once I get good enough. But I digress...

The NHL is locked out. What might you ask does that mean? Basically, on the 16th of September of this year the owners of the 30 teams that make up the NHL said 'We're not going to play' because the league and players association have yet to agree to a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement: this covers player safety, contracts, salary, to name but a few.) This, to me, is all my nightmares come at once. Not least because I wanted to see how the Detroit Red Wings got on without their future hall-of-famer captain Nicklas Lidstrom, aptly nicknamed 'The Perfect Human' (the guy played until he was 42 years young for christ sake and he was still on top of his game!) but also because I enjoy the sport in general and this lock out will undoubtedly damage it.

This is the point at which I come to Commissioner Gary Bettman, the man representing the league. This guy is a douchebag of the highest order. In my eyes, he completely denies the facts. For example, he maintains the viewpoint that the PA has not moved in their direction during negotiations. But I was under the impression they had partially accepted a proposal from the league on the condition they honour player contracts which have already been signed... that's not too much to ask surely? But the owners of course aren't happy with that (I'd imagine Minnesota Wild GM, Check Fletcher, least of all after throwing 13-year $98 million contracts at both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in free agency) but isn't this what contracts are for? I was actually taken aback when I realised the contracts already signed wouldn't be honoured. 

Many different solutions to this problem have been suggested by various people. Players have said why not play a season under the old CBA while negotiating a new one which seems to me a decent option seeing as the entire season is now in jeopardy with games through the middle of December and the All-Star game called off yesterday, as well as the Winter Classic outdoor game already having gone down the river (in which, the Toronto Maple Leafs would have played the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit WHICH I PLANNED TO GO TO! CHEERS BETTMAN!) A mediator is now being called for, with Bill Clinton's name being thrown into the mix, you know it's serious. 

All in all I think the league needs to realise where the fans heart lie, with the players. I support a team, but I also support players. I went and saw Drew Miller #20 of the Wings playing for the Braehead Clan of the UK Elite League but equally I will soon be going to see Anthony Stewart of the Carolina Hurricanes and Paul Bisonette of the Phoenix Coyotes. The teams are a logo that players play under but the main attraction is the players.

The notion of legacy was brought to my attention by Adam Proteau writing for The Hockey News. In an open letter to owners he says: "What are you guys risking these potentially massive legacy hits for? A few more stringent rules on player contracts? Doesn't seem worth it to me" Me either, Adam. 

NHL owners have their team to consider which ultimately comes down to players. Competing in overseas leagues may keep players match fit but in my humble opinion will not develop them as far as playing opposite the best in the hockey world as they do every game night in the NHL. This may result in a 'Lockout Hangover' if the season is rescued/when next season starts. 

I feel like this rant may now have to reach it's end. It's been a far too long already but last of all I need to make one point to both Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr...


...pull your heads out of your arses, sort it out and get back on the ice. LETS GO RED WINGS!

New Work...

As a professional-crastinator, I have decided to write about work rather than actually doing it. That works right? In all honestly, it usually helps me to plan things out and put my thoughts down on paper so i guess that's what I'm doing here. The short and skinny of the situation is I have three projects that I need to be getting on with and another I need to keep at least at the back of my mind. With that in mind here are my thoughts on these projects:

All of these Things: This project is my first book. I fucking loved writing my dissertation; the only part I didn't like was that it had a deadline. All of these Things is going to be a series of short (~2Kwrd) essays on the inane babble I like to prattle on about to anyone and everyone who will listen. The only difference is I will finally be able to research each of the areas properly (possibly conducting my own studies where circumstance demands, which I'm looking forward to) and get my opinion on them backed up by some more facts than the same ones I find myself regurgitating more and more recently. Some of the chapters I have already thought about and will be things like 'In the Intrest of Fairness, Rather than Fairness Itself', 'Sanity in Numbers', 'Human Centricity' amongst others. The chapter I have started working on in the last week is something quite important to me and outlines the specificity of language. I am yet to work out the methodology yet, as if I continue writing undoubtedly other chapters will pop into my head as I get the creative juices flowing; I was thinking of stopping coming up with chapters in about 6 weeks to limit myself from writing a tome of drivel.

Human-Centricity: A photographic outing. Yes. As I'm sure you're aware I like photographs so it seems more than appropriate that I have a project in that area. This is a project I've been thinking about and photographing for maybe the past two years but not in any official capacity and now is the time to pick up the pace. It's aim is to examine and reveal the very self involved nature of humanity as a species. I don't want to give anything away but I'm hoping it will have elements of juxtaposition of expectation, a series that I've always wanted to do on crowds and maybe a third facet which I am yet to dream up. This is hopefully going to go into a book but all the ins and outs are, obviously, yet to be finalised. This endeavour will probably take me at very least a few months, possibly a year but that is nowhere near as long as my next project will take...

Catalogue: I have always loved typological photography. The work of August Sander, the Bechers and of course Ed Ruscha has always struck a chord with me. It aims to make sense of an increasingly disordered world in essence. Now, this is the point at which I should probably tell you this project will take me the rest of my life. When I say it will, I am one hundred percent certain of it for the pure and simple fact that I shall never release it while I draw breath. In fact, I won't be the one releasing it at all. The plan is to bequeath it to someone along with instructions for it. Writing this down (as I mentioned earlier, it helps me work things out) I now realise why I am doing this, and I hadn't before. Catalogue, may very well be my legacy; I've always wanted one of them, something which lives beyond me. However, that particularly old philosophical chestnut is a whole other story which I will come back to at some point. Moving on to the subject of the work, the more astute reader may now realise why this will take me the rest of my natural born days. The subject matter is everything. And. I. Mean. EVERYTHING. So far I have series' on keys, bins, benches, houses, kinder egg toys, people and, surprise surprise, petrol stations. 

Collaboration: The notion of collaboration has always excited me. The perspective differences and compromise that comes through reasoned debate which is inherent to work just floats my boat! In my opinion all artistic mediums need an element of reflection to progress (using myself as an example- look at the difference between 'Twenty Six Gasoline Stations (Around Sunset)' and 'TwentySix') I have had a chat with a fantastic young lady who has just graduated from Portsmouth University who seems keen on the idea of at least getting together and throwing some ideas around. She was on the same art foundation course as me at RSA@ESC and her work was incredible and has only got better so I am naturally very excited about it.

So there we have it. Putting my thoughts together like this has actually really helped and I feel like I'm a lot clearer about what I have to do because it's not in this cloudy, changeable, ethereal haze in my head any more...plus I've occupied myself for forty-five minutes. That's all folks!

Expectation and Acceptance...

So I was having a chat with a friend of mine about a re-run of the '2011 MTV Movie Awards' that I decided to watch one lazy afternoon. I was expressing my frustration with the award for 'Most Shocking Moment' that was won by a scene from one of the Twilight movies when he said: 'but it's to be expected. You can't get angry about it if you expect it.' This also frustrated me.

The discussion essentially boiled down to identifying the difference between expectation and acceptance. After 45 minutes of explaining these two terms are not synonymous I reached my boiling point, and therefore used the following analogy:

"Basically mate, I'll put this in no uncertain terms. For sake of argument, lets use a scenario where I am aiming to punch you in the face. You see my fist heading towards your face, at an alarming rate; you therefore EXPECT I am going to punch you in the face. From this point you have two choices. You can ACCEPT the reality of me punching you, quite hard, in the face, or you can NOT ACCEPT this and try to duck out of the way, probably unsuccessfully. But can you see now that there is a distinct difference between expectation and acceptance?"

"Well, my brain doesn't work like that."

So, I hear you ask; why in the name of sweet breakfast meats are you telling me this JoN? I am telling you this to highlight the ridiculousness of the 'it's my opinion' end to an argument. That, is pretty much what he said. Using 'It's my opinion' in this case (arguably a matter of fact) is literally just saying 'My point does not stand up under any kind of scrutiny and therefore I will play my societal joker card because, after all everyone is entitled to their opinion.'

Everyone being entitled to their opinion is untrue. But that is another story, for another day.

Back to the Blog...

So last night I was talking to my flatmate about Black Mirror and said that my favourite episode contained the speech by the character Bing that was quoted in my last blog post for precisely that reason. I then proceeded to find it on here and read it out (it's still brilliant) but in doing this I noticed I hadn't blogged since February.

This, therefore is my pledge, my promise to blog more. That is all for now...

Black Mirror

I haven’t got a speech I didn’t plan words I didn’t even try to, I just knew I had to get here, to stand here and I knew I wanted you to listen, to really listen. Not just pull a face like you’re listening like you do the rest of the time, a face that you’re feeling instead of processing.”

You pull a face and poke it towards the stage, and we lah-di-dah, we sing and dance and tumble around. And all you see up here, it’s not people, you don’t see people up here it’s all fodder. And the faker the fodder, the more you love it, because fake fodder’s the only thing that works any more. Fake fodder is all we can stomach. Actually, not quite all; real pain, real viciousness, that, we can take.

Yeah, stick a fat man up a pole and we’ll laugh ourselves feral, because we’ve earned the right. We’ve done cell time and he’s slacking, the scum, so ha-ha-ha at him! Because we’re so out of our minds with desperation, we don’t know any better. All we know is fake fodder and buying shit. That’s how we speak to each other, how we express ourselves is buying shit.

What, I have a dream? The peak of our dreams is a new app for our Dopple, it doesn’t exist! It’s not even there! We buy shit that’s not even there. Show us something real and free and beautiful. You couldn’t. Yeah? It’ll break us. We’re too numb for it. I might as well choke. It’s only so much wonder we can bear. That’s why when you find any wonder whatsoever; you dole it out in meagre portions.

And only then until it’s augmented, packaged, and plumped through 10,000 pre-assigned filters till it’s nothing more than a meaningless series of lights, while we ride day in day out, going where? Powering what? All tiny cells and tiny screens and bigger cells and bigger screens and F**k you!

F**k you, that’s what it boils down to. It’s F**k you for sitting there and slowly making things worse. F**k you and your spotlight and your sanctimonious faces. F**k you all for thinking the one thing I came close to never meant anything. For oozing around it and crushing it into a bone, into a joke. One more ugly joke in a kingdom of millions. F**k you for happening. F**k you for me, for us, for everyone. F**k you!

Bing [Daniel Kaluuya] Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits. 2011

Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits on 4oD