subject, object, thing

Camberwell is my meditation focus, my artist date and my worst habit. Much of the truck load of junk I removed from my house and life over the last two months consisted of treasures found at this flea market. When I realised not only was I buying dreaming but was also using this as a means of avoiding writing my thesis I stopped.

Now my deal is to walk and find a photograph to take; buy a coffee and wander as I did priorly but don't buy junk. Its working well although choosing the image is often difficult.

To begin with I chose the relationship between buildings. The church dome in the background, office building in centre field, a truck with graffiti marking its side and the stall owners sitting in the front of it. A simple linear progression of images - I liked it. However, as I was taking my shot one of the Rotarians who oversee the market asked me what I was photographing and volunteered for a photo. I turned him down and showed him the shot I was after of the church et al.



Seconds later realising he was the photo I wanted. His was the story I was collecting I returned to find him but he was gone. Its a common situation - losing the possible in the search for the imaginary - I had decided what I wanted and in doing so disallowed the possibility of gathering a story and an image freely offered: which made me thinking about the relationships between object, subject and thing.

I revisited these thoughts the next Sunday with the taking of the photograph of the samurai and his mistress - the relationship between what is thought to be the candid shot of an unknowing subject and the stilted photos of subjects who pose.

is it simply the relationship between subject and object. In the first the photographer feels in control - the image in the photograph becomes object to her subject. In the latter the image feels s/he has maintained control - has shaped the photograph to a personal image - the photographer is object to the images subject.

Its all getting terribly complicated and I need to think more on this.

Here are two more posed images. One of an elderly stall holder for whom I have great affection - he sells garden pots and old tools and we talk about cats and rabbits and birds in the garden. he assented willingly to being photographed and explained to me he is often sort for photos when people come to record the market.

the second image is of an artist I meet regularly at gallery openings - again charming and kindly - I love that he is constructing a motley -a project for which I also have a yearning.

His pants are becoming more and more intricate and he has begun work on a jacket.