ABSTRACTION, Swansea 2019
Notes on ABSTRACTION, Swansea 2019
Taken on Swansea Kingsway road, in the middle of town, one lunchtime from work. I had seen these badly closed shutters of an old shop front on a drive through town to work previously. Normally any street photography I keep to early mornings but I hadn’t taken any photographs for a while and I begin to get grumpy with everything around me if I don’t do something about that. So lunchtime it was, right outside a few bus stops. I had expected a group of people but for the two minutes I stood there, wooden camera on tripod, fumbling with light meter and lens settings barely a person walked by. I felt oddly nervous, conspicuous and somehow managed to drop the lens I wanted to use. A dented lens but the glass was fine. Two sheets of film were used, two minutes passed, the cold wind blew through me and before I knew it was walking back to my work to eat my lunch with the grumpiness receding and the excitement of photographing once again. I’ve spoken before about these months of inactivity and each time, almost every single time, it is the abstractions I must photograph first before I can think about visiting ruins. I do not know why this is, I do not know what it says about me, I do not know what this triggers but immediately I’m pulling out my notes and lists of sights to visit, digging out the O/S maps and planning jaunts around and about, planning family walks with a ruin somewhere along the pathways. And so it begins, an eager search for unknown ruins, footpaths and any historical facts I can find out about a building.
Taken on Swansea Kingsway road, in the middle of town, one lunchtime from work. I had seen these badly closed shutters of an old shop front on a drive through town to work previously. Normally any street photography I keep to early mornings but I hadn’t taken any photographs for a while and I begin to get grumpy with everything around me if I don’t do something about that. So lunchtime it was, right outside a few bus stops. I had expected a group of people but for the two minutes I stood there, wooden camera on tripod, fumbling with light meter and lens settings barely a person walked by. I felt oddly nervous, conspicuous and somehow managed to drop the lens I wanted to use. A dented lens but the glass was fine. Two sheets of film were used, two minutes passed, the cold wind blew through me and before I knew it was walking back to my work to eat my lunch with the grumpiness receding and the excitement of photographing once again. I’ve spoken before about these months of inactivity and each time, almost every single time, it is the abstractions I must photograph first before I can think about visiting ruins. I do not know why this is, I do not know what it says about me, I do not know what this triggers but immediately I’m pulling out my notes and lists of sights to visit, digging out the O/S maps and planning jaunts around and about, planning family walks with a ruin somewhere along the pathways. And so it begins, an eager search for unknown ruins, footpaths and any historical facts I can find out about a building.
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