My Photography has it's Roots in the Blues. (Recollections of a Grinch from Xmas Past)
24-November-2009
For a long time I hated Xmas. Hate is probably the wrong word, but I wasn’t part of the merriment. It was an association thing. When I was eighteen my eldest sister, up and died without warning two days before Christmas, … the third calamity in two and a half years to visit our previously sunny family.
One can only ever talk for oneself, for me it was the end of certainty. Security was replaced by angst, … something always felt wrong. After a while that feeling morphed into thinking something was wrong with me.
These two photographs taken when I was thirty summed my relationship with the season of greetings.
A few things have happened since. Simone, my life partner explained to me soon after we meet that yes I was indeed mad, but so was, without exception everyone else. This is an observable truth I now hold to be absolute.
Also the end of certainty that once confined me when I was my world, is now a freedom when thinking of everything else.
Plus I also recognise that my experiences aren’t unique and nor am I.
To top it all off, having a five-year old around is a total game changer. I’m not having a bleat; I actually enjoy this time of year now, but never expect anyone to feel the same way.
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