Endframe “Martinique, 1 January 1972” by Kertesz

Melanie Foster

From the initial and inevitable documentation of people and places that have interested me over the years, photography has slowly grown to say more about my feelings for the subject than before. The nature of making a selection or abstraction of what I have seen (unconsciously at first) has lead to a more creative approach, and the enjoyment of making an image in its own right. It has brought me to realise both the potential and the necessity of a photograph to become more than a two dimensional document.

melaniefoster.co.uk

Head or Heart?

Continuing with thoughts of David Ward's article 'There's no Art without...' (in previous issue of On Landscape) still in my mind, I am even more convinced that we should all invest more time into developing and nurturing our instinct so that our art reflects us and our vision. In today's busy lifestyles this is harder to achieve than it sounds, as sufficient head space is hard to come by! I have many memories of having made time for photography but 'head space' and/or the right frame of mind were unavailable to me - unsurprisingly this lead to much frustration and a lack of creativity.

I do recognise though that for me it is more about having the correct mental attitude to produce, or better still, to release the flow of creativity that can otherwise be stifled or paralysed in the worst case. I love the freedom of living in the present that small children demonstrate in their every thought and experience. No baggage, artistic or otherwise!

Even with a willing mind this is hard to achieve. Head (or shall we say other concerns that hinder creativity) can easily overrule our instincts to detrimental effect. Whether you've ever received any musical training or not, I maintain anyone can tap a beat along with the music they hear in an advert or on the radio especially when not wholly concentrating, and slight bizarrely if using a foot to tap along! If hands are used to clap, then curiously people often try to clap the changing rhythm of the melody overruling their instinctive rhythmic ability.