Offline in Texas

21st November 2016

This mammoth bed is the size of my room at home and I now have Wi-Fi; it turns out the highway budget motels are totally hit and miss. I’m on the road in Texas and wishing I could do this forever. A chilled routine of strolling the vast state left me without connection to post on Thursday so here are two for my sins.

The first image is from the Danube trip. I’m shooting more black and white lately and haven’t done so since when I first started photography in my early 20’s. I remember roaming the streets shooting away and then stinking out my room with chemicals as I watched movies and developed films. I loved the darkroom and will head back to one soon.

The sun was setting and we walked into the farm land unsure of what we would find if anything. A farmer agreed to let me take his portrait but before I could capture his character filled face he was in the distance, running at full speed to catch his sheep that had escaped. I shrugged my shoulders and headed over the slippery bridge; wet from the rain.

I struggled to read her, she was contradictory; shy yet confident. She held herself with intensity but seemed quiet and coy. After a mere few seconds of shooting, her phone rang and she apologized as she darted off…. again another busy stranger called away.

Fleeting moments are exciting. The pressure produces adrenaline and the unattainable becomes desirable…(quick capture it before it’s gone forever!)

I try to untangle the subjects’ gaze when looking at the image afterwards rather than in the moment when I am rushed and concentrating on juggling shapes and light. I recount the events before and after, and the stolen moment of capturing them seems even more precious.  There is more mystery and wonder… these subjects are the ones that almost, but didn’t quite get away.

The second is from Italy. These two adorable friends kindly allowed me to ambush them whilst taking a portrait of two girls. They waited patiently and their eyes and olive skin glistened as they joked with us. It’s funny how you can tell they are close despite not being married or related, there is invisible warmth between them.

OAO y’all!  xx