Although an important part of the history of photography, and one that I enjoy immensely as both spectator and creator, being a photographer isn't just about creating the beautiful, grand or the sublime pictures that we like to hang on our walls. It is also about producing work that has something to say; telling a story and creating a point of view.
I asked my mum to pull out old family pictures of myself as a child for a potential project I am developing. I wasn't sure what to expect from these old snapshots, I hadn’t seen many of them in over a decade. Many were very typical family snaps, pictures of me at occasions which mark the years passing; Christmases birthdays, special occasions which warranted the camera to come out of its box. However, a few photos really jumped out at me and I was struck by how cohesive some of the pictures were and what they could say beyond being family snaps.
Author at Menzieshill, Dundee (1987?)
I have no memory of these three pictures of me at a park taken some time in the 1980s, and I can't say I even recognise the boy as myself; I must only be around 3 years old. They do, however, stir up strong nostalgic feelings of my childhood. This is the power of photography; the power of reflection. There is another power at play here, that of recording a moment. What drove my parents to take these images on what appears to be a very non-eventful day? Why do we have this need to take and then save pictures of each other? Most obviously the answer here is love and a desire to be able to look back at the love we have for each other, and I am sure many parents will agree to this statement. My parents have no real interest in photography or at the time any technical skill or expensive camera with fancy buttons, but on this day they have inadvertently created a successful series of images that not only illustrate my physical surroundings of the place and time, but also an illustration of the emotions that I would often feel as a child growing up; that of being introverted, thoughtful and at times a little lonely. This loneliness did not stem from a physical lack of people, I was rarely alone, constantly surrounded by my siblings and parents; which is illustrated by the watchful shadow of my mother in one of the frames. However, my inability to understand myself growing up, which was mostly related to my sexuality, did make it difficult for me at times to put myself more "out there" outside of my family unit. These three images illustrate this aspect of my growth throughout my childhood to me, to an outside observer they may say something else. Each of us has our own narrative which wholly influences our interpretation of an image, and that is fine, in fact it is the way it should be. Photographs are more than recordings, they are sparks that ignite strands of our memories and allow us to reflect on not only ourselves but help us to interpret the world around us.
I am happy I came across these and very happy that they were taken. This surprising nature of photographs is why I love photography.
Photo Credit: Mum