Nearly there…

Hello and welcome to another blog and this last one of 2022, what to say on that! I’m sure I’m not the first to say this and I won’t be the last but:

What. A. Year.

When I think about what’s happened and what it means, it’s been a throughly tumultuous one, for me and for so many others. At least calendar wise we are through it. This next year may also contribute to us being one step closer to the apocalypse, I’ve no idea what 2023 will bring us but I feel that it can’t do worse than this year. Although currently not risking anything by making any comments/predications that could be used by greater forces to curse things into/not happening in the new year. I’ll save those for the 22/3 reviews.

After avoiding that, what else has been happening this week then?

Well, the main thing has been the #NathanPhotoAdvent22 thing, which I think has been going very well. Made quite a few images this year, think that quite a few have been different from previous years which always makes for nice content. One thing I did notice tho is that there aren’t many people shots, as in people doing things etc, think there’s just one in the whole 25 days. This is part of a wider trend that I’ve noticed I’m heading in and one I’ll address further in its own blog post. I did initially start thinking of ways to address this, one way I thought of was adding in a reportage style set of images from what is known affectionally in entertainment/media/trade terms as ‘mad’ Friday.

For those who don’t know this is traditionally the last Friday before Christmas when people finish work or have their Christmas parties. There’s always a bit of debate about when it is, take this year for example, technically the last Friday would be this week the 23rd but think most places of work will have broken up/given up/past it by. Going on that, I think the proper one had just gone, now as is traditional for me at this time of year I caught a lurgy that prevented me from doing very much at all so I was too ill to even go out and get some images, even if I wanted to, initially I was a little disappointed as I thought people in Christmas jumpers heading out might make a nice image but then I took a step back and reflected/remembered that actually I really did hate those sort of jobs back in the 90s/00s. Those preying on revellers type work was a staple of then, so why do it now??

Of course I think I would have done it more sympathetically but initiating flashback to the NathanPhoto situation back then…Every now and again, because I worked a lot of night shifts, I would get asked to photograph on the streets and capture some of the ‘sights’, now I took this as “ok you’ve seen my work so you know what I do” type of commission. I’d head out and look for willing participants, who then I’d photograph walking along the streets (usually the locks, especially if it was snowing.) Then submit these and wait for a response (best one was when the cheque came in). Thinking back now the work was always greeted with little enthusiasm and a ho-hum type of reaction.

It’s taken me a long time to think of the possible whys that was. I realise that I could have missed their cues as it wasn’t quite explicitly mentioned but thinking about the images that they seemed to like and then publish after they’d stopped asking me and it seems that they wanted something a bit ‘sleazier’ or have more ‘ridicule’ potential. The main images used later had people falling over, people doing rubbish things at 3am on their way home, giving the readers something to laugh at etc. You know the sort the “creepy preying on drunk people for others entertainment” type thing.

And here’s my revelation…I just don’t work that way.

I can’t really confirm any of this as thinking back you never really got actionable feedback, you’d either be dammed with (very) faint praise or you’d hear a few jibes from others as a way of what you did right/wrong. You’d also never really get a great brief but that’s another story. This sort of generalised undercurrent flippant, take it either way, passive/aggressive thing, I believe they call it bantz now.

End of flashback/moving back to today, I’m not really making that type of work now so that makes for less troubling seas. The work I’m making now is a little more…now I can’t quite find a word for it that fully explains what I’m doing, plus I’m not committing career stalling judgements by giving it a name that can be used to pigeonhole you, For example “like he only photographs people in t shirts and we need someone who only photographs jumpers type commentary.” The best way to signpost this (new-ish) direction is to give you some actual examples, here are some images that were taken this month, which have all the elements of where I think NathanPhoto will be going in 2023.

I believe this work to be a slight departure from what I’ve published before and I’ll probably delve further into the meanings as I progress through the year but for now, I think the main themes are light, Manchester and a search for that different viewpoint. These aren’t new ideas; I’ve traversed these for my entire career and will most likely continue to investigate for the entirety of my existence, but the new ones to add in here are:

·      ideas of stock imagery.

·      explorations of what makes good image.

·      the continued passing of time.

·      the faces of commercialism.

·      what usage do ‘things’ have.

 There is also the intention to explore all the associated meanings that these subjects inspire. Yes, I can hear/see the criticism about these being too largescale ideas to work in some/all imagery, for which I’ll be keeping the original simplified trio of light/Manchester/difference for conversational porpoises.

Phew. There we go, a lot to digest/take in, so with all that said I’m going to take some time over Christmas/New Year to recharge the blog and will take a small holiday till the new year. I need to catch upon/rewrite/edited a whole load of blogs I’ve missed over this year so I may fill in the gaps or maybe just post them next year instead, I’ll make a decision and let you know.

All that leaves to do now is wish you a good one for this festive time of year, here is my Christmas card image for this year. I also would like to thank you for reading this blog this last year.

Wish you all the best, have a good ‘un, see you in 2023.