These frames are my sketches of future work, straight neg scans from a shite laptop screen, but I’m just concerned with whats in them. I have 126 miles to walk and photograph during; specific route, specific place.

I don’t want to do this but I’ve been questioned in the past and more recently of why I photograph and what I’m photographing. So those that ask me in the future will be directed here. I often find myself attempting to answer but spewing out a bunch of words that don’t really make any sense to anyone but me. I feel uneasy when I make a frame, and more uneasy with each one following; I’m drawn to this or at least drawn to the sensation of something different.

In the end what I consider to be my subjects are ‘nothing’ or ‘nothings’, at the time of capture I’m not concerned with what something is, but I am concerned with how it makes me feel. I used to photograph a lot and quickly but in the past few years I’ve slowed down, spent more time looking, and allow what I’m seeing to cause associating imagery or emotions flow through my mind.

In the end (it will sound cliched) but all I’m doing is attempting to get to grips with my own mind, imagination, dreams, thoughts and everything else that come with it.

In the end its all I can do, I couldn’t care less if it isn’t what I should be doing, I just do. Maybe it will stop at some point, I do have an expected time to stop, but you can’t plan these things. I could go on writing words, but I’d rather be making and looking at pictures, so here are a few recent ones:

]]> http://mattlain.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/trudging/feed/ 0 mattlain img001 img011 img012 img008 img019 img020 img006 img021 img002 img003 img005 img009 img010 img023 img024 img017 img018 img029 img030 img014 img015 img016 img025 img031 img026 img027 img028 img053 img035 img036 img037 img041 img057 img058 img059 img039 img042 img047 img044 img046 img043 img056 img045 img048 img049 img061 img051 img050 http://mattlain.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/02-01-2008/ http://mattlain.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/02-01-2008/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:53:41 +0000 Matt Lain http://mattlain.wordpress.com/?p=1581 ]]> Trying to find some old theatre photography I came across these.

The date of the folder says 2008-01 (2nd). So almost 3 years ago, it seems longer than that.

My grandmother and grandfather used to look after people’s dogs when the owners occasionally left the village to go on holiday. They must have had a long list of clientele as I’d see at least one new dog every month.

These were two of them, I don’t remember their names.

Something cannot be nothing.

In a world of order there are expectations, a place where some things are out of control, and expectations may form the actions of man. In a world of disorder there are no expectations, and the actions of man decided by man alone.

Questions of why something is done makes a reason necessary.

The reason is my questioning of the reason.

Something blurred or blinded the understanding of what is happening; nothingness, limbo,

petrifying and exhilarating.

Addictions are embraced as well as everything which may have been dismissed, and everything unremarkable, with nothing to say, why should they?

They are all hand printed landscape photographs measuring roughly 3.5×2″

After some research I’ve found that Glengarriff is not in Scotland like I thought, but West Cork in Ireland. A place I’ve suddenly decided to pay a visit to in the near future. I might take these cards with me, held out at arm’s length, comparing the surrounding landscape.

I also intend to visit Judges’, which is still “one of Britain’s leading publishers of quality picture postcards”. Based in Hastings, Sussex it was Fred Judge that first began this legacy as an entrepreneur and keen photographer. The business continues to run smoothly since it began in 1902, and based on the number references on these cards they are dated to have been printed between 1930 and 1932. I’ll leave the rest of the story to your own thoughts and possible research, but a nice piece of history to pick up at the price of a bus fare.

I love their delicacy both in aesthetic and technicality; the sometimes whimsical compositions reflect just the view a jaunty tourist might have had while passing by.

Enjoy!

PS.

13928 is my favourite. what’s yours??

It is not a litany;

most of the time there is no

response, or there is a sigh

or a mumble or a slow

sobbing like someone alone

with such grief beyond sorrow

in the next room.

Then the phone

rings, and it is the living

with demand, invitation,

advice, or full listening

silence – nothing like the deep

self absorption of the long-

dead.

Sometimes when I’m asleep

they will speak in the voices

of distant trains, and the drip

of late raindrops from roses,

and the sigh of wind-stirred trees

at the back of the houses;

but these are merely echoes

telling me of things I know:

“In winter the ground will freeze.”

“I studied all day today.”

“The frying pan is greasy.”

“High is high and low is low.”

‘The Voices’ by Tony Connor

Photography by Matt Lain

That was by Johnny Cash.

‘the worst way to miss someone is when you’re sitting right next to them and

to know you can never have them.’