Journal
Thoughts on photography, place, and learning to see what we often overlook.
Why I Photograph Overlooked details
Photography taught me to slow down and notice a world I had spent much of my life walking past. What began as a way to document a journey became a way of seeing - finding beauty in overlooked details, quiet structures and the traces left by the people who shaped the spaces around us.
We live in busy world where speed and efficiency is king. This was my life, walking past the world around me, until I picked up a camera and looked up. Taking in those details which before I would never notice, and slowing down to see. I am not one to do things slowly, or take in a moment. I tried meditation and found it excruciating, ever since being a child boredom was always waiting for me to stop.
That is not a good way to live, and it meant I missed the enjoyment around me as I saw it in a blur. Looking through the view finder made me slow down. When I slowed down I saw another world which I was letting pass me by. Details which were apart of a secret world became visible. These overlooked details made me appreciate the world in a different way, and as such I want to share those through my photography.
Behind the Grid
Before photography I saw the world as a macro space, but slowing down I saw the detail which ties our spaces together. The things which craftsman, and workers alike created and thought would be forgotten. With these details we can appreciate the work of those who have come before and are here today making our world. Beauty as it is said is in the eye, and through my eye piece I can see the world made real but others.
Stopping and looking at a simple grate opens up a space in which we would once fall through, but giving it time we are able to float above.
Photography for me started as a way to document a trip I took to Greece, Turkey and Egypt. As a history nerd I wanted to experience the ancient world I had spent so much time engrossed in. It was my intention to use these photos to bore my friends and family but something happened. I started to see the grand pyramids but also the details which being mere years, decades or centuries were a way to connect to a person who passionately created.
Photography was a means to document but then something special happened and it became a need to uplift those small moments in time which would be forgotten if not for the camera in my hand.
Even in the mundane, or the industrial our world was created for us to exit in and I feel like I am living in this world of details. Moments only I see and hope to share with others.
I hope when you look at my photography you feel something, connected to the world around you. More than that it inspired you to slow down and take a moment to see the world for the wonder it is. To see the work of people separated by moments or millennia. I hope you look at my photography, and the next time you are out on a walk see the world different even if only for a moment.
