The Summer; full of family holidays, days at the beach, treks up mountains, walks in the woods, sunsets, sunrises and of course all those fantastic photos you took… Are they still on your camera roll or have you settled them in nicely to some sort of album yet? If you’re anything like me, the answer will be one big onerous ‘No’.
I feel that I’ve got so far behind with stringing any sort of personal Summer story together that will represent any sort of anything on my blog, that it has now left me feeling that my images lack any sort of timely relevance. I’ve always liked posting pertinently to the months and the seasons, even the weeks, yet it’s September and those images from June are still sitting on the camera roll…haunting me yet somehow pleasing me at the same time!
The other week I found myself having a mini Instachat with Rida from @beforeandagain who I know has masses of lovely images to share…I was saying ‘just post images on your blog rather than worrying about any words’ …it must have sounded like that’s what I did all the time rather than something I have completely neglected. This time last year I was really on top of my ‘Weekly Snaps’ but for the whole of 2018 I have felt consistently behind on any weekly documenting…It’s probably because my mind has been so full of getting my new book together and collating images for that, but none the less I still have images floating around in a digital void which challenge me daily to a guilty chore rather than a happy endeavour. The Summer has clung to me; I haven’t been able to shake it off and engaging with the task of ordering any of my photos has felt like an imposition.
I think Instagram Stories ( which I love by the way ) may have something to do with the lack of impetus to post on my blog and to order my images, partly because I love sharing in the moment, or at least at the end of the day. I also enjoy the images on Stories feeling quite ephemeral; disappearing within 24hrs. But then after posting I always feel I’ve moved on, that everyone has moved on…onto the next day, the next texture, the next smell, the next colour, the next piece of domestic nothing. So, to go back to all of those images for the purpose of a blog post, can sometimes feels a bit ‘past it’…
But today things have shifted a little in my head and I have found myself quite literally taking a leaf out of my own book ‘Conscious Creativity’ ( which will be out in November.)
Rather than showing you any linear narrative I’m simply going to share lots of images which have being lying dormant on my camera roll for the past 3 months in a series of colour essays, starting with Red…My book has a whole chapter on colour collecting and colour ordering and so I’ve basically implemented some of my own advice in this post. I’ll be creating lots of different colour collections, hopefully over this week, but this will be the only post with words…
Obviously I know when and where all the images were all taken, you may even recognise some from Instagram, but these visual essays are there for you to create you own stories, prompt your own memories and simply indulge in colour…
