During a year when I have had several exhibitions, a front cover in a photography magazine, a documentary made about me, Q&A sessions and collaborations with other artists, the highlight so far has to be seeing Don McCullin.
Once again Katrina Aleska of Predella House was instrumental in this.
Don McCullin was appearing in conversation with Mike Figgis at The Arts Club in Mayfair in London and Katrina had a plus one. Knowing how much it would mean to me, she asked if I wanted to be there.
Believe it or not I didn’t say yes immediately. I was working in Bath early the next day and had arranged to travel down that night. But it didn’t take long for me to find a way to make it work.
The event was everything I could have hoped for. Don was humble, intense, informative, honest, emotional and open about his work and personal feelings towards it.
While I would never even assume to understand what he has been through, I felt so much affinity towards him, the way he works and the demons he carries. His attitude towards photography, working with film and what it means to do your own prints rang so many bells for me. He spoke of his fears, not only towards taking the photographs themselves but towards – perhaps surprisingly to most listening – doing the printing.
This resonated so clearly to me.
To take that final step and finally bring your photographs to life – to release them into the world and create a reality out of a memory can be incredibly difficult. The will power required can lead to lethargy, fear and even a mild depression from that sense of failure that builds up every day you postpone doing it.
And to hear someone like Don McCullin speak of this lifted such a weight off my shoulders and psyche.
It was such a fantastic, enlightening and inspiring night.
Yes I was seeing and hearing one of my inspirations, but I was also hearing him talk of things that I had been struggling with for years. And if someone who has seen the atrocities he has seen and been on the psychological journey he has been on, was still aware of, and still feared the same things I feared when it came to working in the darkroom, then I wasn’t a failure, or an imposter or a fraud as a photographer.
And the icing on the cake?
I shook his hand and thanked him.
But more than that…
I shamelessly (and proudly) gave him one of my postcard boxes…
May 19, 2019
April 26, 2019
January 28, 2019
March 19, 2018
February 15, 2018
January 11, 2018
October 3, 2017
September 3, 2017
June 2, 2017
May 18, 2017
April 27, 2017
February 27, 2017
November 11, 2016
November 7, 2016
November 5, 2016
September 25, 2016
July 1, 2016
June 3, 2016
May 24, 2016
May 24, 2016
April 9, 2016
March 20, 2016
November 11, 2015
November 10, 2015
October 20, 2015
September 12, 2014
August 15, 2014
July 1, 2014
June 2, 2014
April 20, 2014
April 19, 2014
November 28, 2013
June 10, 2013
May 8, 2013
May 3, 2013
March 24, 2013
February 23, 2013
February 22, 2013
February 21, 2013
February 7, 2013
January 22, 2013
November 29, 2012
November 1, 2012
June 9, 2012
June 6, 2012
June 5, 2012
June 3, 2012
February 3, 2012
January 20, 2012
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
January 5, 2012
September 3, 2011
August 19, 2011
May 24, 2011
April 21, 2011
April 20, 2011
April 10, 2011
April 8, 2011
April 7, 2011
March 22, 2011
March 16, 2011
March 3, 2011
March 2, 2011
March 1, 2011
February 28, 2011
October 20, 2010
October 15, 2010
September 16, 2010
August 22, 2010
August 5, 2010
August 3, 2010
July 8, 2010
June 25, 2010
June 19, 2010
June 15, 2010
June 2, 2010
May 23, 2010