Every picture is a memory. Every time we press the shutter on the camera we are freezing a moment of history so we can preserve it forever. It sounds monumentous doesn't it, but it's not: Facebook will certainly tell you otherwise. I log on each day to see the myriad of photos that my so-called 'friends' vomit onto my homepage. Not only do people upload a sequence of the same picture - I have two of them so why not use them - but the other people in the picture will also post their versions of it. The result? Monster albums clogging up the internet providing the CIA with plenty of material should anyone need blackmailing in the future...


It is an age-old question, though. How do we make our holiday photos interesting to the general public? How do we step away from the necessity to have 'been there' to really appreciate someone else's pictures? And, while we're at it, how can we remove this insane fashion for de-tagging and portraying this hideously false image on Facebook? There is no hard and fast solution - no tried and tested method to solve this, but I think I may have hit upon a compromise.


May I invite you to read on...

Monday, 6 February 2012

It Started as a Good Idea...

When you're sitting in hospital in plaster up to your eyeballs and dosed on morphine; in those hazy moments of silence you do think 'well it started as a good idea...' A plan fraught with complications is usually pursued if the end product is worth it, so much so that the risks really are worth taking. Sometimes, however, these things don't happen, and they're just plain stupid.

Sometimes I think that about my jumping photos. I see a brilliant spot to jump off, but it's only after I think that I may have been jumping off something a little dangerous, or in front of something a little dangerous...

Take the picture in Florence, for example. I was jumping off a wall (with a hefty drop on one side). One slight miscalculation and I was looking at broken bones and a stay in a hospital that could probably learn a lot from the NHS. All that in the name of jumping. Is it really worth it?

That was my first thought when I saw today's jumping picture. I'd forgotten about it for the mostpart. If I remember one, it's a different one - the next one in the series.

What can possibly go wrong?
Stresa, Italy, 2009

I was struck by the fact I didn't have a great deal of ground clearance and it looks like I'm about to smack my knees on the concrete wall, that or end up in the lake. I don't think about things like that when I jump because I'm confident enough in my jumping ability to be able to take off and land without doing myself too much of an injury.

But the camera never lies and sometimes shows me how close I get to just plain stupid.
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Location: Stresa Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy

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