First Inflection Point
Starting the year, a new project, a new outlook..
As I write this I have 99 subscribers, a year and a week since I started this little Substack. This slightly blows my mind – thank you to everyone who have been on this journey with me! When I started out, my only priorities were to find a place to put my images and thoughts that didn’t feel ‘corrupted’ by an algorithm, and to keep it going every week.
Transition, trouble and transformation
As we enter 2025, the world seems a little more daunting, both personally and in general. I have lost both my parents in the last 3 years, kids are at University and a new job started in March with a whole new set of challenges. January is already super busy, with just next week featuring trips to Cardiff and London, hosting a roundtable discussion on AI, getting tested for ADHD and submitting and discussing my first image in the ‘Inflection’ series with
(see below…).The wider world seems like it is locked in a grim spiral of events, with Trump’s inauguration today the likely precursor to a series of selfish billionaire-boys-club executive orders and aggressive ‘problem solving’ on the world stage. We might get a few fringe benefits from Trump’s irrational and unpredictable approach, as dictators as well as democracies will feel the full force of his ‘bull’ as it charges through the china shop of trade, regional wars and border disputes. We can only hope and pray some degree of intelligence and collaborative thinking is present in his administration.
_____ Canvas
But hold on, there is a flip side to all of this. I have a blank canvas to explore, reinvent, push forward with less restrictions and bigger possibilities. By keeping our eyes to the horizon not our feet, and standing by our values we can carve out our own spaces of creativity and community. Let’s collaborate to make a few dreams come true. A shout out to all my subscribers and followers – if I can help with anything in one of your creative project or ambitions, please reach out, I will do my very best to help.
I’ve always found letting go of assumptions about the boundaries restricting us gives us a new sense of possibility.
First image, first inflection
Last year I mentioned the Inflection Project, a collaborative project for 2025 with
, creating a narrative with a ‘create and respond’ concept – I would start in January, and Karen would respond with a new image (media TBC…), and I would respond to that every month. Our aim is a narrative we create with a series of images with no preconceived path of exploration, and to provoke and push each other to create images in different ways. I had in my mind the game ‘Exquisite Corpse’1.Having thought about it over the last 6 weeks, it really felt like going first was the short straw! Starting is always difficult for any project, writing your own brief, exploring options, finding something worth saying. For this one I also had a responsibility to Karen to give something she could work from! Something with different dimensions she could explore, the start of a story we could craft together. I also wanted to create something worth exploring as a print, as we are anticipating exhibiting the series next year.
Luckily, on my walk to work last week I came across a scene that picqued my interest with reflections of different elements it felt like I could work with. It also reminded me of a series of images of one of my favourite photographers, Ernst Haas, with reflections as a big feature in many of his compositions of New York, overlaying different elements.
I only stopped for a couple of minutes to get 3 shots, but felt there was real potential somewhere there. Back at home in Lightroom, a few adjustments of contrast on the most interesting of the three, and I had my image. I don’t know what Karen thinks (yet), but I’m hoping it’s a strong start to the series, and am really looking forward to seeing how our series unfolds.
Keep Curious
James
Image 1/January for the Inflections Project: “Triptych”
Exquisite Corpse was created in 1925 by the Surrealists André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, and Marcel Duchamp during one of their ritual hangouts on Paris’s Rue du Château. It was one of the favourite games of Frida Kahlo.
It's a terrific starting point to our series! I hear what you are saying about being first. Being next is also nerve racking. I had to get started and jot down ideas straight away, to stop myself from panicking and overthinking. I feel a genuine sense of responsibility to craft a worthy response. It's giving me a brilliant buzz to start the week.