“it’s not very difficult, for many people, to witness the destruction of household objects such as crockery. But to see the destruction of personal mementoes, letters, photographs, works of art – that is deeply disturbing.”

RAMBLINGS

I been handed the baton of my own personal history. My whole life has been documented (mostly by my dad) — who am I to give up now, not everyone is given this gift. I have the resources, skills, knowledge, support and inclination to preserve life (preferably on paper) — my efforts are always appreciated, even by family and friends who are not driven to the same extremes...

For me, and for most of its existence, photography has been about preserving something fleeting — light as it is at a moment in time... Would we find William Henry Fox Talbot turning in his grave if he knew the abandons with which we now scatter our captured rays?

I admit, I too am careless with the shots I take, one hit wonders designed to service my immediate purpose, be it communication (with those distant in being but brought close by technology) or notation (despite the numerous writing instruments I carry with me at all times). I am trying to be more conservative and mindful (pardon the self-help buzzword) of the photographs I make. At one time every frame was made at great expense, today the cost for most people is negligible — we don’t need to wait until relatives die so they can sit still enough for t...

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"Such is the fact, that we may receive on paper the fleeting shadow, arrest it there, and in the space of a single minute fix it there so firmly as to be no more capable of change, even if thrown back into the sunbeam from which it derived its origin."

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

"Of all these things they wanted a permanent record; they wanted to stop the fleeing events of the moment, and treasure them as long as they lived, and hand them down for the advantage and pleasure of those who came after them."

“Photography could reach eternity though the moment.”

"You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again."

"But in the domain of photography the amount of 'horse-power running to waste' is appalling – and all for lack of a little system and co-ordination. Shall this be allowed to continue? Shall the product of countless cameras be in the future, as in the past (and in large measure today), a mass of comparative lumber, losing its interest even for its owners, and of no public usefulness whatever? This is a question of urgency. Every year of inaction means an increase of this wastage."

"The most transitory of things, a shadow, the proverbial emblem of all that is fleeting and momentary, may be fettered by the spells of our 'natural magic,' and may be fixed for ever in the position which it seemed only destined for a single instant to occupy..."

THE ART OF PHOTOGENIC DRAWING

Read Henry Fox Talbot's 1839 account of The Art of Photogenic Drawing.

SNAPSHOT – 8.4.2018

Barrier – an obstacle or circumstance that prevents or threatens future access to photographs.

Alleviation – a process or action that reduces a barrier to keeping photographs for posterity.

"Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn’t show up invited, eventually she just shows up."

THE DICTIONARY OF LIGHT & SHADE

Context: Most publications I've made have been bound by someone, or something, else. Sewn binding is something I would like to incorporate in future publications – fancier than staples, more natural than glue.

Aim: To test an unfamiliar, hand sewn bookbinding technique.

Method: Deciding to use a list of words I had already compiled, I consulted a 1978 edition of The Thames and Hudson Manual of Bookbinding, looking for a section sewn method — I settled on French sewing, also known as “sewing without tapes, the sections are linked together by passing thread under the loop of the preceding section.”

I used a bone folder to fold eight pieces of card in half, which would yield thirty-two pages to work with. The page count could easily be increased if each piece of card was substituted for four pieces of paper, or more than eight sections added.

After folding, I clamped the pages, folded edges together, and marked with a pencil (my current favourite tool) where the holes should be. While I could have used a four hole configuration (on such a small book), I thought six holes would be more aestheti...

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