Dancing on the fringes of creativity

Dancing on the fringes of creativity…

I have spent a lot of my life dancing on the fringes of creativity. I painted when I was young. I was left handed. However, my mother gently coaxed me to use my right hand as she said, it would be easier for me in life. I was dreamy, always play acting scenes and roles and characters. Whenever I would see a patch of light, texture, colour, I wished I could stop time.

It gave me a career as an actor but not one that took me quite as far as my dreams. Discovering photography as a creative tool completely changed my experience of the world. Once I realised I loved using a camera, it gave me a reason to go outside and look for light, to slow down and be present to all these moments, splashes of light and colour. People, nature, beauty, life. The camera turned them into something I could save. Cherish. See. Feel.

What I love about photography is finding that moment and freezing it. Letting go of distractions. Focusing on what is right in front of me.

Digital photography is like a magic wand of light and colour. A tonal playground that can be shaped into art. The closest thing I have to painting.

Shooting film has a different quality. A certain uncertainty of how the light will interact with the film stock. I love analogue photography because of how intangible it is. And yet, there is something tangible and comforting about holding the negatives, knowing they will, with care, last hundreds of years.

“There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson