Starting this new project, I’m going in blind. I have thought about where I wanted to go and what I expected at the end of it, but I haven’t really made a detailed plan of what exactly I was going to do. I don’t even really know how I’m going to present things. I’m winging it.
One thing I’ll add to the remit is that I won’t change the photos I take in any way. As the purpose is to show things as they are, the photos will be straight out of the camera using predefined, fixed settings.
There are ideas that are obvious to me, so I’ll start with those while I think about the more long term details.
I. Body
One of the things you accumulate along the way are lines on your face. I always find it fascinating not to see people for a long time, then seeing on their faces the passage of time.
My wife complains about is that I don’t have enough lines on my face for my age. I’m not sure how much I should have.
II. Objects
One of the objects that were obvious to me was this ring. I haven’t seen it done much outside France, but here it was common for people to have a ring with your initials (signet ring). Maybe it’s less common with kids today. I’ve had one since I was about 10. In fact I went through several of them because I was destroying them (mine are silver, I’m not so keen on gold, so fairly soft).
This one was my dad’s. When he died last year, my mum gave it to me. She gave his wedding ring to my sister (that was the extent of his fewelry). I try not to be sentimental about things, but this one is special.
III. Places
This is our house. We bought it in 2014 and signed the papers on my birthday. It was my dream home because it was the same house my great-grandparents had.
It’s what’s known here as “maison de maitre”, i.e. master’s house. These used to be owned by the big landowners and wine/liqueur producers. Each of the villages here have 4 or 5 of those. The rest of the villages were workers’ houses.
It’s way too big for two people and a bunch of cats, and unnecessarily grand. But I like it.