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Inspired by talk of Narrative …

Phil Abraham

The Tuesday night Buzz-Zoom got the cogs whirring, all that talk of narrative took me back to the years spent at the Bournemouth Arts Institute back in the Noughties …. Narrative, Semiotics, Visual Voice, it all came sliding out of the mental box marked ‘Photo Theory”, about two rows down from the ‘Nothing’ box.

It got me thinking …. So this morning I fired up the Mac and picked an event that hadn’t really been edited since uploaded. The chosen event had been a serendipitous personal project, come across by happenstance, one element of a couple of weeks travelling through the Outer Hebrides, one of series of trips from a busy year.

However, its moment had arrived, Lightroom booted, files opened, a ‘cold’ view of what had been a really wonderful community event allowed for a dispassionate edit of the files. Five years away from them allowed a critical eye to roam and evaluate where, closer in, the still fresh emotions attached to the event would have diluted the process.

The resulting five images hopefully say all they need to about a traditional community event that welcomed outsiders with a warmth lost in larger communities.

The Clans gathered
Lost in the moment
Under Expert eyes
Giving his all
The Objects of Desire

 

Thanks for popping by, let me know how this worked for you (or how it didn’t)

Published in Member Blogs
14 Comments

  1. Great narrative! That is exactly what I was talking/waffling on about Phil. Glad it gave you the impetus to go back to these images and produce this set…

  2. Oh yes. This is fantabulous. Each tells a story. The hammer thrower looks exactly like the young chap who runs the store at Carstairs and lives in our village – I wonder if they are related. And the final image is so very clever – well spotted. Thanks for sharing your memories.

    • Thanks Mary, I guess it could even be the same guy, as this was part of a clan gathering so he may have traveled over … A job for the Minty Detective Agency I think 🤣😂

      • When I went to the Highland Games in Callender a few years ago, I discovered that the strong men traveled from Games to Games, and the overall Scottish champions came from Dartford in Kent and Poland! Not one of the competitors was a Scot.

        • This was quite an interesting event, very small, with a ‘family’ feel on a local Farnes land, it coincided with a clan gathering so lots of friendships and allegiances being refreshed and reinvented. It seemed from the support that most of the competitors had family and friends in the crowd. Loads of incredibly good natured banter and the competent competitors always happy to give tips and support to some who just stepped up in street cloths to ‘give it a go’

  3. yes, worked for me to tell a story alright. Excellent.

    • Thanks Andy, it is a story that I want to explore further when such events restart at some point in the future

  4. Some great images there, Phil. Really tell a story.

  5. Great set of images that really do connect the viewer

    • Thanks Howard, it was god to dig them out

      • God dug them out? Wow!! Divine inspiration, I need that for my photos 🙂

        Great blog Phil, love the black and white treatment.

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