Speak My Language :
In early 2012, I watched the Christopher Petit film, Radio On. In making his road movie, Petit was attempting to bring British cinema away from the influence of Hollywood and up from the gutter of the “Carry on...” and “Confessions of...” productions of the time. He drew upon the European doctrines of La Nouvelle Vague and Neue Deutsche Welle, with their sometimes surreal and disjointed narrative. This resonated within me, and I see direct parallels to the photography of the Japanese triumvirate of Moriyama, Takanashi and Nakahira, who were similarly influenced by these movements. Nakahira spoke of Godard’s films as a “chanced reality” and how the images are just a subjective confrontation of a copy of that reality (1). What we see in photographs is not real, it cannot be real.
This diary, a disjointed copy of my own reality, has grown from watching the film and the associations I have made between my own life on the road and the journey made by the film’s lead character, Robert. That’s not to say our journeys are the same, far from it. There is a common theme though; the general monotony that blurs from day to day, interspersed with events that rise out of that monotony. There is also the music. Robert and I also share some degree of commonality in the music that is played as a soundtrack to our lives and the printed version of this work includes snippets of lyrics from the songs I have heard over the recent months.
With this record, I have not tried to impart a specific meaning when that meaning will, in all likelihood, be lost on most people who look upon it. Instead I have put forward a stream from my consciousness, without deliberate narrative, interspersing the photographs with lyrics. Hopefully the viewer will bring to this collection something of their own life, therefore allowing it to become more of a collaboration, a sharing of the loneliness of the road.
(1) Nakahira T (1970) For a language to come. 2010 edition, Tokyo. Osiris
Rob™, 2012
[back]
In early 2012, I watched the Christopher Petit film, Radio On. In making his road movie, Petit was attempting to bring British cinema away from the influence of Hollywood and up from the gutter of the “Carry on...” and “Confessions of...” productions of the time. He drew upon the European doctrines of La Nouvelle Vague and Neue Deutsche Welle, with their sometimes surreal and disjointed narrative. This resonated within me, and I see direct parallels to the photography of the Japanese triumvirate of Moriyama, Takanashi and Nakahira, who were similarly influenced by these movements. Nakahira spoke of Godard’s films as a “chanced reality” and how the images are just a subjective confrontation of a copy of that reality (1). What we see in photographs is not real, it cannot be real.
This diary, a disjointed copy of my own reality, has grown from watching the film and the associations I have made between my own life on the road and the journey made by the film’s lead character, Robert. That’s not to say our journeys are the same, far from it. There is a common theme though; the general monotony that blurs from day to day, interspersed with events that rise out of that monotony. There is also the music. Robert and I also share some degree of commonality in the music that is played as a soundtrack to our lives and the printed version of this work includes snippets of lyrics from the songs I have heard over the recent months.
With this record, I have not tried to impart a specific meaning when that meaning will, in all likelihood, be lost on most people who look upon it. Instead I have put forward a stream from my consciousness, without deliberate narrative, interspersing the photographs with lyrics. Hopefully the viewer will bring to this collection something of their own life, therefore allowing it to become more of a collaboration, a sharing of the loneliness of the road.
(1) Nakahira T (1970) For a language to come. 2010 edition, Tokyo. Osiris
Rob™, 2012
[back]
