Memory | The mastery of life, work and Photography

2019 seems like such a long time ago now. It’s history and by looking, I’m looking back. I find that I don’t do that as much as I used to. Possibly because I now prefer to look forward. What was quite nice though was to look back and see what I had experienced throughout the year. It was certainly very busy and to look back at some of the imagery brought the pace home.

We do quite a lot of portraits here, although I use the term portrait quite loosely. Many of them a little more than passport photos, we get the chance to be a little more interesting. Working in both the studio and on location a big part of the job as a photographer is dealing with and portraying people… or pigeons.

Sometimes you see a character that just draws you in. Often at the most surprising times, like the man who came dressed as a poppy on Remembrance Sunday in Banjul, Gambia.

I do love a good expression. In this image, the situation is not obvious at all, but the look on the young mans face tells a story, especially with his right hand lightly touching the bar, I can feel the tension.

Photographers get the chance to experience life outside of your normal boundaries. The annual Gurkha Dashain festival, is, by all accounts very different to the event back in Nepal, but when held here in the UK, they are vibrant colourful and great fun to experience.

It’s not all about bullets and bangs, there is often a subtlety in play when you have to try to tell a story in a visual way.

I had a scary recollection today. I was speaking with a colleague today who I served with out in Afghanistan and we were both a little surprised to realise that it was two years since we arrived there for a six month tour of duty.

In the time I have been back, apart from the odd quick scan through the images, I have not really given them too much thought.

As we get closer to the end of combat operations I am regularly surprised by the lack of understanding of the job our soldier s are doing out there and in some cases, blatant conspiracy fantasies seem to be circulating. It seems to me that there are people who are happy and willing to exploit ignorance.

I have mixed feelings about my time in Afghanistan. I won’t pretend that I bounced around the green zone of Helmand with a bayonet between my teeth and two GPMG’s, one under each arm killing insurgents without fear. In fact quite the contrary, each and every time we went out on any patrol, I felt fear, the healthy kind, the kind that keeps you alert.

The people of Afghanistan are much like we are in many ways. They eat, sleep, laugh, cry. They have the same basic needs we do but have less to work with and because they do not experience our western ways are mostly happy with their existence. I won’t pretend they don’t want their security, they do as do we.

It always amazes me how we (human beings) struggle to understand different cultures though. Let’s face it there is a north – south divide in the UK and lets not get started on our nearest neighbours, the French! 😉

Anyway, looking back through the Afghan archive, memories came back and they are different from the experiences at the time, for there is no fear now, the memory of that has faded, now I focus on the experience. Much of the emotion has gone. The images bring back shadows and nothing much more. I suppose this is the same as the nerves I felt and I remember feeling on my wedding day, but now when I see the photos, they don’t remind me of that fear, just the day. Natural I suppose.