Searching for…

Hello again, welcome to this week’s thoughts, which are centered around search terms, archive, work legacy and what’s left behind. I realise that this could possibly sound like quite a morbid topic but bear with and let’s see how this pans out..

It starts with a slightly longer story that this format allows but the short version is that I had reason to google my name late last year to see what pictures were thrown up by a search, then just last week the same idea appeared as a conversation point, the main strand of this conversation that I’d like to talk about is: 

How people find you via the internet and what they are (mainly) looking for?

I would say that when searching for something (or someone) on the internet you use a combination of what you can remember, a location and a timeframe, in my mind then I would suggest that there are four basic search terms if you were looking for me:

First name / Photography or a derivative / location / last name

The combination of these will depend on what people need from this search and what they are looking for. Think there’s a certain degree of logic involved in this as well, there is no defining logic either, so I could be completely wrong here!! Using all the different combinations I do pop up in various points in the search, I’m not sure if that is purely algorithmic or just the generalities of my searches at play, but by far the most successful combination (for what I was looking for at the time) was: 

first name / last name / location

It was only after the initial enquiry was answered that I began to look further at what the main pictures were on the first and second rows of the image search.

A quick breakdown gives you a top row consisting of 4 from Manchester Pride, a lovely shot of Chris and Tilly from Pop Curious then a feature on my Ginga project.

Second row got more interesting results with the Scissor Sister, live performance of Early Doors at the Lowry, ex Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, Liam Gallagher, another Feeling at Pride shot and ending with a City Life shot of club promoters Let's Make It Precious. 

Third row descends a bit into Getty work and some which I’m not sure are mine but have been credited to me.

 Interesting set of images and to break that down a bit: 

·      The Feeling at Pride was a big hit with five from 2013...I’m afraid to say I don’t have many recollections of photographing them and cannot work out why they feature so prominently. Looking at them, my critique would be that they aren’t my best gigs shots, but they are definitely, very evening newsy so that’s possibly why?

·      There’s a lovely shot of Chris and Tilly from Pop Curious in there as well, promoting a night when Michelle Visage came to the Manchester night, it’s fantastic that it appears here as I’d all but forgotten what a great night it was. 

·      The obligatory Ginga project shot of me working then appears as I gained quite a lot of publicity with that show so that’s good that it still appears now, I wonder how long I’ll be known for that show which happened again in 2013… There’s that year again..

·      Then came a Facebook shared image of the Scissor Sister which is shared by the MEN again and this time from 2010 ! 

·      Then it’s a more recent shot I did of the live performance of Early Doors at the Lowry in 2019, a very nice shot if I say so myself and I was quite proud of the work I did at that job. 

·      Getty pictures makes it’s first claim by sharing a shot of ex Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy at Manchester Pride again this time from 2011 then in its second appearance it’s one of Liam Gallagher when he opened his shop Pretty Green on King Street in 2010, not one of the better ones but the one where his hat shaded his face from the flash giving it an ominous turn but ah well there are others in the set if you search.

·      Then there is yet another Feeling at Pride shot, still no real memories of that sorry… 

·      finally it ends with a classic City Life shot of club promoters of Let's Make It Precious club night taken back in 2015...probably just before the cull…Again vague recollections of this but that was quite a year..

What if you were to use this as a cross section of my work? 

It’s quite compelling, not completely off the mark, as it’s what largely constituted what my main areas of work were for the last 30 years but I can’t help but wonder why some of these images have been chosen and why some haven’t.  

Will have top drop in at this point that when writing this blog I searched again with the same terms and a whole new order popped up, which makes me wonder how often the searches change. Is it day to day or week to week? 

Overall, it’s incredibly interesting to see what images are thrown up in the searches on google as they are definitely not ones that I think of when locating my work. 

This all helps to add into ideas of the identity of NathanPhoto by showing me what it thinks it is then I can discuss why I agree/disagree, what an incredibly useful process. 

To think this deep dive reflection on identity and legacy all stems from what images picked up via Search engines. 

Always good to think about what your Search terms are too although it doesn’t always show up everything that you’re looking for, some of the notable missing ones are many, but I wil talk about a couple that I’ve made for the Guradian. 

(Where the latest naming deconstruction of me is where they insist on calling me Nathan Fox, I could expand on that, but I think that discussion is a whole ‘nother blog or maybe a teaching session…)

As ever a blog needs an image like a party needs a leader, obviously the image for this blog definitely has to be the screengrab of the searches but I thought I’d also throw in an update on the January idea to illustrate the word ‘New’  

Set of buildings across a dusk scene of Manchester taken in the clear January light of 2022.

What do you think?

I think it’s terribly twee, doesn’t really say much at all and is possibly rather bland, but thought I’ll put it on here as I think it raises further discussion points about aesthetics versus usage and the inalienable question of:

What constitutes a good image?

ls it one that is instantly recognisable or one that makes you think, or one that is good stock or something else indefinable?

Also, in the spirit of putting things out there thought I’d also drop this one in on here as well, nice little capture on Deansgate on a Sunday morning…what are your thoughts on this?

Thank you for reading and as ever any thoughts, discussion or anything at all you can get me on the usual channels…