2009 was a year of quiet introspection for me. Working away from home in Shropshire, I had many long evenings to fill, alone with my camera. Every evening I would upload my images onto Flickr, and I have some wonderful memories of sharing those pictures and receiving inspiring comments from people around the world.
It took me a long time to recognise that these pictures were documenting an important period in my life. Looking back at them, I remember this time as one of great inner torment and frustration for various reasons, and I am thankful to my Flickr friends for giving me some light during those dark days.
It wasn’t until ten years later, in 2019, that I finally realised these images needed to be brought together as a small photobook so that I would always have a record of them. I had been struggling with ideas for my first photobook for a long time, and when I realised the answer had been staring me in the face for ten years, everything suddenly made sense.
The first proof of these books is on its way to me as I write this post. I’m excited to see how they look and feel in my hands as a physical bound volume. If they work, as I feel they will, I intend to order a small run of them and offer copies to anyone who wants to look back in time with me at these quiet moments in my life.
I still practice what I call Diary Photography, and have produced many thousands of images over the last ten years. It probably makes up my largest body of work to-date, and I am certain I will continue to add to this for the rest of my life.
