A Picture Starts A Thousand Words

I have always had cameras; when I was young my mother would always pack me off to the family holiday in France with a fresh roll of film for my old 35mm point and shoot. Most of the pictures ended up being of my thumb or the inside of my pocket rather than the deep pine forests of the south-west of Europe, but the relationship between travel and image was born. Of course at this age just changing the roll of film without catastrophe was a bigger challenge than actually taking the photos and I distinctly remember one 'Holiday '89' roll falling into the Rhone river while i was on a canoe trip and was desperately trying to get a photo of my dad trying not to fall in. He didnt, sadly and so the loss of precious family memories was rather unjustified. But anyway, thats growing up right!?

I never really thought about taking photos as any sort of hobby or career. They were what other people did and all I knew was that I hated being in them! (school photo day was a good day to be sick, sadly I, being the good son and grandson, knew my family obligation was to pose and smile and at least try and make it look like I wanted to be on display in a hallway or above a fireplace for all the family to see). So fast forward to 2006 and a chance meeting on a social networking site with a like-minded soul and my interest in art and photography was ignited once more. I had never been one for inspiration, be it book, art or person. It took me until this time to realise that I had just not met the right people, seen the right places and read the right words, for in a few short months I was hooked, and shooting everything in sight, in love with the possibilities that photography presented. I graduated from my 35mm film to a Casio digital camera before long, knowing nothing of cameras, it was silver and it had a big LCD so I was sold and to be fair it did me proud and i still use it to this day as my pickpocket camera (ie if im going to be robbed ill make this one easy to steal!).

This is not the first picture i ever took, I dont remember what that is and I'm not sure many people do, but this is the first picture that made me realise that phtography wasnt about posing for a school photo or standing perfectly still to wait for the right image. It told me that images were all around us and that people need not be movie stars or renowned faces to make themselves famous in your eyes. A man staring up in awe at new york city, I'm sure everyone who has ever been there has done the same. For me it became the symbol of a trip, a trip about discovery and growth and for that part it encouraged me to take a camera with me wherever I go, as you really can capture a whole nation in an instant.