{A visual blog}

                Pursue that obstacle. It will set you free.                       

        ‘There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground’. Rumi.

‘I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to blow about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any’. Mahatma Gandhi.

              ‘Who ever said that pleasure wasn’t functional?’

                              Charles Eames

For the last eighteen months or so I have been immersed in thinking about colour, it’s meaning to different cultures and people, how it affects us all, and most of all its importance. 

Colour fascinates me: the number of tones, combinations and why we choose what we do. It says something about us - like it or not. So as I prepare to finish the last pages of my next book Colour - the ending, the beginning title page and cover coming last - and look through the 300 odd pages already complete its impossible not to feel the joy that colour brings with it. 

While making the book as a photographer it has taken me places, most recently India and Ethiopia. I have been dependent on other people’s generosity - their willingness to be photographed by a stranger, the light, and making the most of opportunities as they present themselves. It’s meant capturing a scene, telling a story-one where the pieces  fit together while each remains true to itself, involved decisions about where to be and what to shoot, how to frame it, readings, disappointments and delights - not always in my control.  I’m particularly thankful that most Indians seem to think it an honour to be photographed, more often than not saying ‘thank you’ after the clicks have stopped. Countless Ethiopians had not seen their photograph before.

As a writer it is totally different - solitary hours with thoughts in your head that find their way to a page, remembering things that triggered a thought, finding inspiration, setting the theme and finding a way to tell it that’s inviting. Research has taken me to places others had already visited with their words, then there’s the corrections and the desire to be read as intended. With colour as a constant companion it has been a great deal of fun. I’ve learned much and thought a lot about the subconscious effect that colour has on us all and decided it undeniable that it does.

Colour is part of our interpretation of the world. It’s a gauge of our feelings, both individually and culturally. Please don’t take it for granted.