You may have noticed that I’ve been playing around with inverting some of my old photos of late. I’ve just come to the conclusion that they should be called ‘nocturnes’, which the dictionary defines as ‘a picture of a night scene’. This is simply because once I put that label on them, they sit more comfortably in my mind. I find I’m able to accept them more readily as possible night scenes, than positives that have been inverted in Photoshop.

So here’s how the ‘Nocturne’ series look on this very website:

I really like them, because they fit what I’m trying to do with my photography: create another reality. But it’s struck me today that I think I’ve always been aiming for this. I tried night photography many years ago but I failed at it. I couldn’t get the results I was looking for, and this method of shooting minimalist scenes and inverting them gives me the control I was looking for.

It also struck me that this has all come from one photo: Michael Kenna’s intriguing photo of Hastings beach, England. I came across this image way back in the late 80’s. Indeed, it was my introduction to Michael’s work.

Curiously for me, even though I was no photographer at the time : I got really interested in this photo. Even more curiously: I bought the magazine that this photo was on the cover of, because I was so intrigued by it.

Looking back, perhaps this image has been a subliminal plant in my mind for a long while? Most probably :-)

Which brings me to two points:

All I know for sure these days is that: my subconscious often knows what I like, before I do :-)
Influences can stretch way back. Michael’s work has had a lasting, long standing impact on me.