Monday 12 November 2007

Time travel


A rare enforced admin day today due to the cold, wild, wet weather, and the laptop making scary wounded animal noises, 'cos of the 6 gigs of image files blocking it's electric string.

Picture the scene; me, tea, a pile of blank CDr's, a veritable sea of joy. At some point, in that trance like state that repetitive tasks induce, I found myself mentally transported back through the year.

All sorts of moments passed across the screen, dragged and dropped in groups of twenty, thirty, forty. Work, play.......other peoples work and play.......Friends and family, now taller or with different hair. Beaches and waves long since changed and dissipated. Three weddings, no funerals. Randomly or thoughtfully harvested incidents. Ghosts made as permanent as digital facsimile will allow. A visual tally of the ordinary and unusual bits of 2007, for me and mine.

I found at least fifty semi-forgotten images that could, and maybe should, make guest appearances here. This one is from Southwold, a lovely Suffolk town I maligned in a fit of pique for it's lack of a proper fish and chip shop.

I like the picture for the obvious fact of it's redundancy. The man kept walking, the moment passed.
I remember standing in the August sunshine, looking through the viewfinder at the buildings, thinking that I needed someone to walk through the frame.
With the slightly reverse deja-vu feeling that occasionally creeps up on me when I'm working, I knew someone would.
He appeared, I shot two frames, this is the second. My timing was a bit off

15 comments:

Beachfreak said...

Philosophers of certain persuasions would suggest there is no way in which your timing was off. You captured a moment and a striking moment at that. That's enough.

Anonymous said...

Mr Horse you are so talented.

Anonymous said...

what??? your timing was off???
did he do a handstand or something???

(i reckon you nailed it. spot on photo)

its great going back through one's computer and looking at your own history...i tend to do it more with words than pic's.

Unknown said...

Hey Freak, thanks for your support.

....and Kitty, you don't do badly yourself.

Obviously my thing is pictures, LB, but having a personal history in any form is hugely warm.

Anonymous said...

Did you know someone would walk through the picture because you could see him coming??

Excellent picture, and I would love to see your pictures when the timing is spot on!!

Ian

p.s. have fun on Saturday evening!

Unknown said...

Hey Ian, thanks mate.

Anonymous said...

They say things come in batches of three eh? Last night I watched a doco about the Magnum picture agency, today I went to Wellington to view students work from a degree course and now I get to see a lovely shot of an old geezer in Southwold! I am so inspired I am going to dust my camera off this weekend!Keep up the good work mate, oh and I'd really like to see a grip and grin after Sat. night....now does the recipient go on the right or left.....hmmm (Cartier-Bresson would turn in his grave!)

Unknown said...

Gotta be the right mate !
JSOP forever........(I don't think old Cartier 'B' was a graduate...)

Anonymous said...

August sunshine seems suh a long time ago, especially lasy night with that wind and rain lashing down

Anonymous said...

Having just read my commenst after they were puclished, realise I need to read them BEFORE to sort out my hideouosly bad typos.

SUCH
LAST

Unknown said...

Fucking writers, hopeless.

Anonymous said...

Why thnka yuo

Beachfreak said...

Drunk I'd say. Gin and tonic under the desk they tell me.

Swearing Mother said...

Nice pic, as per.

Unknown said...

That's what I heard too Freak.

Thanks SM. x