It’s been a while and for those two or three people that have missed my blog I apologise. Equally for those that were delighted to see the back of it, the realisation that I’ve returned must come as a shock and you have my deepest sympathy. There are reasons for this blog writing hiatus, mainly it’s: What should I write about? I’ve drifted a little away from the original idea for Leica Biker. Primarily it was to show my latest work, away from social media where photographs can’t be seen as intended. I’d also write about photography or street photography and use my motorbike to travel to places that might be of interest. I seem to have lost my way, rode off the edge of the map as it were. I’ve run out road for ideas for blog posts about street photography. That particular inspirational well ran dry a long time ago. All that’s left is to pen a polemic against it, something I love, that would be ridiculous and so it’s done as a subject. It’s also apparent that this blog has turned into some kind of travel blog and not a very good one at that. The last six posts were about my recent trips; Turkey, New York, Washington, Venice and Las Vegas. It’s not sustainable. Evidently I’m not a travel writer and in any case my bank manager has ruled it out due to artistic differences regarding something he calls “a tragic lack of funds Mr. Harper”.
What can I say about photography? Imagine for a moment me giving a photography workshop:
Hi everyone, my name is John and welcome to this ‘blink and you’ll miss it' workshop. My dad when explaining how to sketch would say “just draw what you see’. This workshop follows that advice and I’m here to tell you to just photograph what you see. Know your camera because you need to be quick, blink and you’ll miss it. Thank you all for coming. My eternal gratitude for your money, speaking of which could you please hand it directly to the gentleman in the suit stood at the exit who, apparently, and rather unnecessarily in my opinion, is a representative from the bank.
I’m not interested in photography gear whatsoever so that’s a non starter. What could be more boring? Cameras and lenses are just a tool, no one asks a novelist what kind of pen or word-processing software they used. Besides, if I was into gear there’d be another shake of the head from that man in a suit. On this occasion he’d be justified, stop wasting your money, buy some books featuring the work of the greats, get out and shoot with whatever camera you have. If you’re any good you’ll get the results despite the lens you use. Speaking of photographers that could produce photographs with any camera at their disposal: “There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace”. I left that Sherlock Holmes quote on my friend Jeff Chane-Mouye’s latest blog post. He always makes such compelling shots. Making something extraordinary from the ordinary is essentially the game of photography and as Sherlock would say “ the game is afoot’. I somehow think it’s a case I’ll never solve, but will never give up trying. I need to express myself, those potential photographs are constantly playing in my mind and waiting to be released. That of course involves actually releasing the shutter and I haven’t been what we might call proactive recently.
Riding my motorbike has been out too. It feels as though the rain hasn’t stopped since the autumn. If there are any interesting places to ride then they’ll have to wait until the rain at least slackens off to torrential. That’s a source of material cut off whilst we’re living through weather of biblical proportions. Hold it. There’s an idea, I could write about religion. A carpenter who was named after the two words every woodworker shouts when they hit their thumb with a hammer. Jim Carey couldn’t understand why Jesus was so forgiving after being nailed to a cross, he would have been yelling “You wait till my father hears about this, you’re all in for it”. Maybe I’ll leave religion. Though, thinking about people with only 12 followers, which is less than most on Instagram, I could write about social media. What’s to say about that? A huge amount of people pretending to be what they’re not. Bombarding the rest with images of their “perfect” lives so they feel obliged to over-perform in their own free time. Worse are the photographers that feel the need to explain every photo “Amélie walking on water. No, it’s not the ‘second coming’, hahaha. It had rained, this is the runoff from the fields and it froze. I nearly fell over when I took it”. Who cares? and it’s a shame you didn’t is what I think. Or they like to ask questions “Which one is your favourite?” or “Black and White or Colour. What do you think?”. Good grief, its pathetic, to them the second word is OFF.
I could try writing on politics or current affairs. We have an election coming soon to the UK. I have next to zero interest. What’s fascinating to me is the forthcoming vote in the USA. An old man who is currently on the hook for fines of half a billion dollars, criminal charges and a possible prison sentence. He’ll be standing against another old man who thinks he was talking to Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl recently. One of these two will have their finger hovering over the nuclear button. Talking of which the UK military decided to test our nuclear deterrent the other day. '“Trident” is carried by submarines, no one knows their location. Hiding under ice in the polar caps apparently, that plan may have a major flaw judging by the current plight of polar bears. They decided to let one off in a test, it failed. Launched from the sea, it couldn’t manage any more than that and came straight back down, at least missing our Head of Defence who was spectating and the submarine that fired it. The last test was in 2016 just off the US coast, it also failed. It was supposed to follow a trajectory and path 3,000 miles away to a portion/target of ocean near Africa. Instead it veered off in the direction of the USA. Now, obviously these test missiles aren’t carrying a nuclear warhead, which some might argue is a shame as they were built by the Americans. I doubt our enemies are particularly worried, though as one comedian put it they should be terrified with the threat: “We’ll fire our missiles and we don’t even know where they’re going”. There’ll be another beancounter in a suit questioning the £17 million cost of each missile for sure.
Now, this has all been very much tongue in cheek and hopefully you’ll see it in the light hearted manner way in which it is intended. I’d hate to be cancelled, then again I was never authorised in the first place. Not that much is happening for me to write about and I’m not taking many photos. That said I am going to Vegas again at the end of March, three days after my return I’m taking my youngest daughter Amélie to Barcelona. Hopefully that’ll create some material. If not there’s a planned trip that’s almost sure to. A meet up in October with fellow photographers Ashley Sowter (Australia), Kevin Haggith (Canada) and Øyvind Vigdal (Norway) at an undisclosed location for possibly a week. We can’t decide where, just like sticking a pin in a map I might suggest that we ask the Ministry of Defence to test another missile and we’ll just go wherever it lands. I’d also like to meet up with my friend, photographer, film director and YouTuber Tim Huynh (Hawaii) so if it lands either there or on Reunion Island to see Jeff Chane-Mouye then it’ll be happy days.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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