Month: December 2012

A Tapestry called Life

| Wasim

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Introduction:

Life is full of richness. A bountiful brocade tapestry of the most sumptuous and lavish of earthy materials, woven together with luxurious textures and weaves – a feast for the eyes and mind. That’s why I love fotografie – it allows me to  s l o w   d o w n   and stand back a little from the frame of life (like one stands back when viewing a painting), and take it in slowly – like a fine, rich, Scotch whisky – aged in French Oak casks for 12 years…

Visually life is a feast. We know that. I know that – that’s why I love taking pictures. But the dinner table of life is also laid with other items that are not visual in nature – but rather, behavioural. The rich and complex behaviour of humanity! Ahh – the textures of human interaction! The book of life is far thicker than any you’ll ever read.

I am alive and I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and constantly amazed at this very fact and the strange predicament I find myself in! I don’t mind it. I’m just very aware of it. I am über aware of the fact that one moment I was not, and then the next moment, I was.

What a wonderful thing!

This business of being alive can be rather fun – but ONLY, if you realise, that it won’t last, and that, in the end – nothing is really that important. We spend our lives thinking ourselves, our lives, the whole damn show – as being something important and with an aim at the end of it. But it’s not. It’s a teeny-weeny nothing – our lives are – and once you see that – life becomes so much more fun and less painful. Just being becomes fun.

And the only aim of life as far as I see it, is to live it.

You have eyes, and ears and a nose and a brain – so use them! Use them as the instruments that they are, to uncover the brocaded fabric of Mrs Life…undress Her, strip Her naked and then admire her pale truths and her delicious bits and bobs…and those motherly breasts…ahem – right, moving on!

Human interaction is a rich vein that I want to mine now. And my aim is to try to open your eyes to its prodigality and plenitude and lasciviousness!

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There is so much of human interaction that we do not think about or notice even. So much that happens under the radar of our waking days. Everyday we deftly navigate through a veritable jungle and thicket of complex human interaction situations, that require subtleties that a powerful super computer would struggle with – and yet we do this navigation, without even blinking. Nay – we do it without even thinking. What kind of interactions am I talking about?

Well, let’s take for example – the interaction we have with strangers on a train. If I sit down on a seat opposite someone whom I have never ever seen before, than the usual and ‘normal’ thing for me to do is to ignore that person; not to say “Hello”, not to look at them too much, not to start speaking to them for no apparent reason, and when I, or they leave the train – there is no reason why we should say goodbye to each other. We are strangers and we both know that though we are sitting in close proximity, we are only doing this for a short space of time.

The same applies to someone who sits next to you on a bus.They are sitting right next to you, touching you – a very intimate situation if you think about it, but there is no need to start a conversation with them. Everybody understands these rules of social interaction. We pick them up as we grow up.

Let’s complicate things a little. Say, for example, I am sitting opposite someone on a train and they then ask me the time? So, what do I do? Well I will look at my watch and tell them the time – and they will (if they have manners) say “thank you”. The interesting thing is what then happens when either one of us leaves the train? Well, because we have interacted with each other courteously – we feel compelled to sat “goodbye” when we leave. You will not always say “goodbye” in such circumstances, but you may glance at each other and acknowledge the goodbye. And yet all you have done is told them the time – yet this simple interaction with them has altered the situation and dynamic! It was nothing really, but then it was also something.

It’s a very subtle thing – but I’ve seen it so many times – and I myself have interacted like this many times. And so have you. It is these subtleties of interaction that I am referring to when I talk about the richness of human interaction. These everyday subtleties we don’t think about, yet a Martian would find totally perplexing. In fact, people with certain forms of autism or social difficulties also find it difficult to detect and understand these subtleties and nuances of social interaction.

Here’s another example (or a question): You’re being served by someone at a Cafe. What is the level of interaction here on a scale of 1 to 10? 1 being the most distant interaction you can imagine (like a telephone conversation with a stranger) and 10 being the closest/warmest you can imagine (family, wife, girlfriend, lovers, children etc). I’d say it would be between 2 and 3. 3 if you are a regular customer and you recognise each other and have a little chat. But at a social interaction level of 2 or 3 there are no OBLIGATIONS on either party. It’s a formal interaction.

When do you become obligated in a social interaction? Imagine you’re at a party and you recognise none of the guests. Do you walk up to someone and strike a conversation? And how do you go about doing it? Well, the way most people would approach this situation is to NOT barge into a conversation between a group of people, but to perhaps find someone else, who also appears to be alone at the party – and then try to strike a conversation with them. The reason being that the ‘group’ may be friends, and they may be having an intimate conversation amongst friends, and since you are not part of the group, your joining in would be considered rude and slightly odd.

Here’s another example (this has happened to me before): You’re on a train and a man asks you if he can borrow your phone as he needs to call the wife about the boiler, it is urgent, and he’s asking you because his own phone has run out of batteries. What do you do? Well in a split second you ‘take in’ the individual – assess his clothes, mannerisms, and body language – and these things will tell you how respectable he looks, how safe he is, is he a danger and is he being honest. Then you lend him your phone. He makes the brief call. Say’s “thank you” after returning it to you – and when the train alights at Liverpool Street station, you both acknowledge each other and say goodbye. There is no need to go any further. He does not feel compelled to walk with you down the platform and nor you. The interaction and the act of kindness on your part has developed a small bond – but it is small and you will probably not see this person ever again.

Now imagine you’re at a station waiting for a train and you strike a conversation with someone. You discuss a manner of subjects: politics, science, history, the weather perhaps, maybe religion etc. The train arrives and you’re both travelling on the same one. What do you do? Sit down with them on the same seat and continue the conversation?

How to tell whether to do this or not? Well, you’d have to ask yourself how much you enjoyed the interaction, try to guess how much they enjoyed it (through their body language and verbal cues) – and try to assess whether they would prefer to sit alone or spend their journey talking to you. This whole interaction is very complex. You’re relying on sub-conscious body language signals that you are not even aware of, and a host of other things too.

You’re back-packing abroad and you meet some fellow Brits in your hostel. What do you do? How do you interact with them? This depend on many factors such as whether they are a couple, a group of guys, a group of women, or whether they are a lone solitary traveller. Through experience I have always found it harder and less likely to join an already established group, then to join a lone person. Interaction dynamics!

And then there is the can of worms that is male-female interaction. You can come away from such an interaction thinking you’ve scored and the girl really likes you – when actually, in her mind, the interaction was nothing special and rather routine!

Life is a complex business. Full of twists and turns and waterfalls. If there is any lesson it is to treat it as a ride.

The ride of your life!

Fleeting moments and fleeing thoughts

| Wasim

Ahh, so it’s almost Christmas again. I do love this part of the year. The anticipation and build up, and then before you know it, it’s all over – and you’re left with a slight nagging disappointment, and a feeling of wonder, as to what all the fuss was about!

Ahh, Christmas – don’t you just love it! For me it’s more about the days off work, and the Christmassy spirit that everybody seems to imbue. That Christmassy feeling. I do have that Christmassy feeling though I am not a Christian.

But, I still have that Christmassy feeling. Because, contrary to popular opinion, I do have feelings.

Oh! By the way. Did you perchance notice that the world did not end on the 21-12-2012? If you remember the Mayans had a calendar, which stopped abruptly on the 21-12-2012. Clearly they felt there was no need to go any further. Many people, especially those of a gullible bent, and doom mongerer’s and such ilk – saw this as proof of the end of the world.

Well I sat on my bed as the midnight hour approached on the 20th, and of course, nothing happened. Apart from a slight cold I caught. Which perhaps in another life in the past, may have carted me off to the other side!

I find it interesting. Interesting that a sizeable minority of people, would welcome the end of the world. Perhaps they are not happy in this life, and are itching for something better.

We always think there is something better don’t we? This applies to everything. Here I am typing this on an Ipad on a train to Manchester, and also thinking, things could be better.

But could they?

Of course!

But they could also be a whole lot worse.

There are many more ways of things being worse, then things being better

Remember that. That is an awfully wise statement. It encapsulates, pretty much, all you need to know to get through life!

So why am I on the train to Manchester? To see my little nieces. A surprise for them as they are not expecting me. When they see me it will be as if Father Christmas has arrived! I’ll take them out shopping, maybe watch a movie, eat the sort of meal that 11 year olds enjoy (McDonalds / Nando’s), and stop them from fighting. Fighting with each other that is and not strangers on the street…

I caught the 6:36am Virgin service from London Euston. Paid the £15 extra ‘weekend supplement’ to allow me to sit in first class. As a first class passenger I am now entitled to enjoy free wi-if, tea and coffees, and an interesting snack box. The other advantage of sitting in first class is the total absence of Chavs and low scum life!

I know, I am becoming a bit of a snob in my wiser twilight years.

But it’s true! People in first class are so much classier! Well, apart from the drug dealers. They don’t scream down their phones and they have fewer children running about making an awful racket. People in lower class have more children!

I think I may have made a racist or repugnant statement there.

Anyway, moving swiftly on (before I put my foot in it again).

Do you know what I am enjoying most about today. It’s only 7:18 am, and as I mentioned I am on the train to Manchester, what I am enjoying most, is the change in rhythm. Normally I’d be getting ready for work at this hour, or about to get out of bed, but today I am doing something different. It may not be particularly exotic, but it is different nonetheless, a healthy change from the normal and usual. And it is that which I am enjoying the most. The deviation from the diurnal rhythm.

I’ve also realised something else. I think I am a natural writer. I always have something to say. Don’t you think?! For example right now, at this moment, there are a billion thoughts and ideas and memories competing with each other, for the honour of appearing in these sentences. There are literally a thousand things I could write about at this moment.

What kind of things?

Well…there were the faces I saw on the night bus this morning on the way to the station. They we all either cleaners, early morning Pret/Cafe/Breakfast workers, or young people who’d had a long night and were clearly pissed or drugged out of their minds. Not the sort of people I usually see on my daily commute to work!

What else? It was dark and raining when I left home this morning. The combination of early start, neon glow, wet pavements, sleepy head – imparted the world with a magical dream like quality which I captured, or tried to capture, with my camera. The reflection of lit billboards and traffic lights in rain puddles as seen through the steamed up window of a bus – and in the background, the enticing reflection of a woman passengers leg, her black stocking ripped and needing repair.

There was something desperate in that ripped stocking. As if all her honour and glory of the night, was now made bare for the truth. The truth being that she was lonely and wanted to have sex with me…

Did she?

We’ll never know!

And there you go. The sorts of things competing for my attention.

Life is full of fleeting moments. Like Polaroids 99.999% of them are lost forever.

But a few survive a little longer.

And some even make it to the page.

Chao!

An essay on the Sony RX1 and on photography in general

| Wasim

It’s quite extraordinary. I seem to have re-discovered something. Rediscovered my love of taking photographs – in London!

The thing is; London being my home, it never really makes me want to go out there and take pictures in the same way a foreign exotic country might. London has no camels and reeking markets and dodgy pesky hawkers (well…sort of). Most of London is familiar to me like the back of my hands. Unlike say Patagonia or India or South America. When you’re in those places you really feel you’re ‘out there’ in the world and all you see is new and fresh. I often wish I could somehow recreate that ‘foreign-ness’, that freshness, whilst out and about in London Town. You know – to see things as if new again. To pretend to be a tourist and be excited when walking down the Charing Cross Road or The Mall or Covent Garden.

Well this weekend, I was out and about with the Sony RX1 – and I felt…funny. I felt the same way I do when I’m abroad. I felt like taking pictures. Lots of pictures! And I felt like I was seeing lots of pictures. More than I usually do.

The anaesthetic of familiarity can kill creativity.

I’ve thought about this – thought about why I was feeling like this, and I’m pretty sure it’s not simply a novelty factor associated with owning a brand new camera. it’s not! It’s not novelty – well not totally anyway, because I didn’t feel quite like this with any of my previous camera purchases. I mean I was excited when I brought the XPro1. But that eventually kinda died away and the camera languished…

Why is it different – (for me) – with the RX1?

Good question. I really have to think about this. What is it about this camera that is different? And also, will the novelty wear off – eventually…?

What it is I think – (and I have thought about this) – is the fact that I can walk the streets without feeling that I am actually carrying a camera with me on my person! But then I could do that with the RX100 anyway? But there’s a difference with the RX100 because I felt I was compromising. And I hate to compromise. With the RX1 I don’t feel I am compromising at all. In fact, I don’t feel I am lugging a camera around with me at all. It fits in my pocket. It can handle almost anything (apart from action shots) – and most importantly, nobody notices it. Nobody.

Wow. So – that means, I am no longer purposefully out there for the purpose of taking pictures. I am on the street for some other reason, and I just happen to have a camera with me!

Why should it matter what others think?

Well it doesn’t. But it also does. It’s hard to explain.

Let me try and recreate a feeling. I was in my local park over the weekend with the RX1 taking shots of leaves, trees, branches, benches, the sky, the grass, walls, buildings, doors, signs, empty beer bottles and abandoned places. I’ve never enjoyed myself so much! Suddenly I realised that there was a treasure trove of photographic opportunities in my local neighbourhood – and I began wondering how it was that this treasure trove had alluded me. You don’t have to go far to find interesting stuff to take pictures of. You can find stuff not far from your own doorstep.

Why was I feeling like this now? Had I not taken the other cameras out when they were new? The XPro1, and the X100 and the GH2 – well, yes I had but for some reason I always ended up comparing the image quality and the speed and the features with my SLR. You see the thing is I felt like I was compromising with these cameras. But image quality is NOT everything. Right? Yes – that’s true. But with the RX1 I no longer care or worry about what lens I have with me or image quality. I no longer have to feel regret about leaving another camera at home.

The RX1 is all there is. That is my tool. I can’t change the lens. It’s fixed. But it is wide enough to allow me to crop later if I have to. It exercises – nay it forces me – to exercise those creative muscles. I can carry it on my wrist strap and walk around with it without a care in the world – knowing, in my heart, that here is a photo taking machine, to rival anything else out there.

I don’t need to worry about lenses or equipment.

Or image quality.

Or lack of depth of field and ISO’s.

It’s finally, just about the photography.

I can immerse myself in the world.

Life is rich. You don’t have to venture far to see that richness. It’s right in front of your nose. The trick is to go out there in a contemplative frame of mind. Just wander slowly. Don’t hurry. Keep your eyes open. Look for the things that you see, but you don’t usually see.

Seeing is not really about the eyes anyway.

It’s mostly about the mind.

Winter London Today

Image | | Wasim

(All pictures taken with the Sony RX1 and processed in Lightroom 4)