Whilst ‘take your time’ is probably good advice in the current very warm weather this week’s musings were inspired by some reflection on how long things can take to grow.
Sometimes I think we focus too much on the end product and on knowing what our end goal is. Of course it is helpful to be aiming for something though what about the unintended consequences of actions or the serendipity of chance encounters?
As we come to the end of Remedy photo festival – the first health and photography festival in the UK (as far as I and the marvellous Jeremy Jeffs and Marion Sander know) I have been thinking about how we got to this point. I am really proud of what has been achieved and of my small part in making it happen. Around two years ago I did some live unboxing on Instagram (I think a first for me) of badges and flyers for the TakeOneADay exhibition at the Usher gallery that ran from July to September in 2024. A conversation and an introduction at the opening of that exhibition helped to bring the Remedy photo festival (already an idea in Jeremy Jeff’s head) to life.
Not an outcome Jason Baron, Richard Ansett or myself had considered. And I am pretty sure not an outcome the Usher team considered either. I doubt they thought that they would be sponsoring an artist’s commission on health and photography two years later. And I can tell you for certain that none of this was intended when I started taking one photo a day to manage my mental health challenges and to reclaim a space that had acquired negative associations due to finding the body of someone who had died by suicide.
Only when a friend picked up on what was happening and suggested an exhibition in a small community gallery and a conversation about that he had at lunch with a photographer friend led to Richard Ansett’s involvement did this become something more.
My point, you can’t plan everything and allowing time for ideas to grow, for the right people to come together is important. And sharing your ideas and thoughts, instead of keeping things to yourself, can mean others join in – and when they do they add to what you are doing – they don’t steal your idea – good things happen when we open up and are open to others. And sometimes when good people (in this case the marvellous Colin Hopkirk) say to you ‘there’s somebody I’d like to introduce you to’ it might just be worth you making the time to talk. Who knows where it might lead?
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