mrscomophotography

Yesterday I went out and bought a new printer and some high quality photographic paper to put in it. With the exception of a magazine spread that featured some of my early mobile phone pictures a couple of years ago this is the first time I’ve really seen the possibilities of my work in print. I’ve thought long and hard about some way of presenting my current photography online, have dived deep into researching the subject, and after a brief spell thinking my work had no merit to speak of suddenly realised that print remains the ultimate photographic medium and beyond a shadow of a doubt the way to present my work. In front of me are a few small, high quality colour and B&W prints of my Vilnius street photographs which are screaming out to be turned into a publication. My major project is now more or less worked out and I intend to go back to my original postcard book idea and to publish a book of postcards with a designer friend, timed rather nicely to coincide with both the thousandth anniversary of the first mention of the name Lithuania in written text and Vilnius’ current status as one of the two European Capitals of Culture. The only thing that remains unknown is how to present the work (and therefore what pictures I should be taking) coherently. Going out into the street and taking pictures can be a frightening thing to so when there are so many random elements. Especially after recently returning from Warsaw, a city with a massive pulse that positively explodes with humanity as compared to the quiet and worryingly provincial empty streets of Vilnius. Now that my recent period of intense work is more or less out the way, I’m ready to get back into the course and to use my time with the tutors to polish my ideas. The other great thing about the project is that the timeframe for finishing the work falls over the summer, which gives me plenty of light (and good quality light at that) to do the job well. Photographing here during the winter is a nightmare I don’t want to repeat in a hurry. Whether I continue with the City of Strangers project or change the theme slightly remains to be seen. Ironically I’ve been thinking about the work of Antanas Sutkus, who it turns out was 70 yesterday. His Soviet-era masterpiece Daily Life Archive echoes in many ways the work that I’m doing, albeit in a slightly different style. As strange as some of my photographs are, they’re ultimately a celebration of daily life, of ordinary people going about their lives. So, City of Strangers may or may not become Daily Life Revisited, a respectful nod to the great Lithuanian master that updates his work after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Whatever the exact nature of the project turns out to be, the finished result will be a book, albeit a book of postcards. There’ve been times on this course when I’ve felt intimidated and bullied even as others fail to get why I’m using a mobile phone to take photographs. I have tried to explain this as best as I can and I do I admit need to explain it further. Ultimately though I don’t see any reason why just because I use strange modern technology to produce my photography I have to use strange modern technology to show it. I only wish I had more time and energy to completely submerge myself in my ideas and work.

Strange that last year I was in Tirana and stumbled upon the World Press Photo road show and that again this week whilst in Poland I should do the same again. Initially I found the latter a bit of a lacklustre affair, more reminiscent of a local photography exhibition than what one would expect from such a high profile event. Whilst the show in Tirana was a high profile affair in a specialised gallery, the Warsaw exhibition has been put up on wobbly display boards inside a shopping centre, but having seen the response I soon changed my mind. This is really what it’s all about, bringing in an audience who wouldn’t ordinarily visit a serious photographic exhibition (or any photographic exhibition at all for that matter), and I have to take my hat off to the Poles for their inspired choice of location.