tag time

Really pleased to participate in the Tag exhibition with my local London Independent Photography group. It's great to see thoughts that I explored in my Ambiguous book project come to life in a collection of images that ducks and weaves through urban, portraiture, landscape and still life across city, town and country. 

A big bonus is the decision to print all the images in black and white. Without any influence from me, honestly! I actually wonder the difference colour would have made in the connections that each photographer has made. Monochrome's ability to accentuate the composition of an image featured in a number of interpretations. Would colour have led to more emotional responses? I recognised my initial rational response to the images I had to work with but actually enjoyed letting my mind wander...hey I'm a flaneur, right?

It's a well worn topic I know. Black and white was regarded as having a greater truth, whatever that may be. Colour was ironically too much like reality. In a way less art, more artisan. I don't recall making a conscious decision, like with a lot of things, to choose black and white. It's just how I see the world. 

As well as responding to a brief I also enjoyed the challenge of working against the clock. Almost like a real photographer!  

To give each participant sufficient time to respond to their image meant a turnaround time of a week for each photograph. No big deal for digital, not so straight forward in the analogue world. I've come to enjoy the related but distinct parts of my image making process but they don't lend themselves to speed, in fact quite the opposite. For this project I had to condense months into a week and, thanks to the wonderful print work of Stuart Keegan, managed to do that. Phew!

The format of the show is the final part of the experience I really like. Prints hung by fish wire and bulldog clips it appeals to my sense of how photography doesn't need to follow traditional gallery practice. Making it accessible in such a way that doesn't undermine the work but removes barriers to viewers, both mentally and physically, is really important to me. In fact it's one of the attractions of using new technology to create work that appeals to me.

That's how I like it. Beginnings not endings.