Back from Brighton

Meanwhile it's been a week since I returned from Brighton. My project came eventually to naught. I didn't have the time to dig deeply enough and maybe it was doomed from the very start. But it's not a big deal.

Looking back at the workshop, I realise that I "know" by now what can be learned at such events. As I wrote to Marko right after my return: "First, one needs to find a personal voice and there are no recipes for that. Even the best photographer in the world cannot help (although Lorenzo did a great job last year in bringing his students as far as he possibly could). It is basically a matter of honesty and perseverance. And then there is no substitute for exposing yourself to the outside world. In other words, one has to shoot and to shoot an awful lot. This week we had the opportunity to study contact sheets of big names such Winogrand, Friedlander, Carter-Bresson etc and it is clear that 98% of what these guys shoot is for the bin. But they shoot an awful lot and they do it all the time. That makes a difference. That's how you shoot a real body of work.

Anyway, it's important to keep in mind Lorenzo's words about being free and playful in what one does. You know, I put together a little booklet on Blurb with holiday pictures from our last summer trip. I did it just for the fun of it. And, guess what, both Carl De Keyzer and Mark Power found the holiday book better than the Capitals. The Capitals is a big subject but the pictures are not always up to their lofty ambitions. The work is too uneven and too forced and systematic. The holiday album, on the other hand, is just what it is: a modest travelogue of a family going on holiday. But I believe that the booklet as a whole transcends this simple origin. I certainly made me think. "

Above a small set of pictures that capture bits of the atmosphere in Brighton. All of them taken with the Mamiya 6, the 50mm wide angle and Fuji 160 NPC.