photoGrant

Fear is pretty scary. Hah, you see what I did there? Hire me.

Images are entirely irrelevant to my topic of conversation today, but they’re there nonetheless. I’ve been reading a book called Risk lately. It’s fantastic. There’s something that I’ve never really personally addressed, and that is the extent that marketers go to, to ensure a sale. Scare tactics are real, and really fucking shocking too. Basically they (they being them genius type people) have figured that we have two forms of thought. Simplified they’re ‘Head’ and ‘Gut’. Head is the rational gem that puts perspective and knowledge into a situation whilst Gut is the over-reactive immediacy that jumps at the first sign of… Well, anything. An example of Gut kicking in, is the stomach wrenching, hair erection you get when you see a hooded youth following you down a back alley. Gut appears and exclaims that this motherfucker will stab you if you don’t do something about it. That something is fight-or-flight. You know it.

So why? Well there’s a few different rules Gut follows, but the one I just gave an example for is called The Example Rule. Basically Gut latches onto the last experience it remembers, when a hooded youth was in a dark alley – Obviously the last experience would’ve been a news article, a story, a documentary or a personal experience – so Gut remembers danger and shits itself. I say it shits itself, if the last thing it remembered was a hooded youth giving you free money and a pleasant conversation for an hour, then maybe not. Regardless, Gut is stupid. It doesn’t do rational.

Rational rocks. I love rational. Head does rational, high five to Head. But rational can’t tell Gut to shut up. Gut always nags. So rational can only do so much. Marketers exploit this. Bastards. Head might realise that you’re going to be safe in your lovely suburban home, but Gut says “Look, there might be a time where someone steals your TV and Cat” so be on the safe side and buy that £2,000 security system. Security is the easiest thing to exploit in a human. Everyone is insecure, and if you buy pepper spray, tazers, CCTV equipment, personal alarms and your own personal safe-house – it won’t make a difference. Gut will always nag. But you’ll be skint, too.

I don’t want to be skint, but I don’t want to be raped down a back alley either. So I enjoy Guts company from time to time.

Alas, Gut almost stopped me from going to Canada. Fortunately this book helped me decide to go, instead. Thanks.

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That’s my sentence, and my next brief. How do I approach it? What can I deconstruct from this sentence? Can I produce a photograph that doesn’t fall under cliché’s?

Signs are one of the most common signifiers around the world. They dictate simple and efficient messages that we need. The information we can extrapolate from signs can range from speed limits, to weight limits – from directions of places to the distance in which they reside. The sole purpose, the life and spirit of a sign is to give us the information we need. So I like this sentence. I like that it subverts the idea of a sign being more than just a visual aid that directs us to our destination – and gives it a life and meaning. The sign talks, yet all it has said is that it doesn’t know the way. It’s melancholy, it’s weary and unjust. The purpose that all signs hold, has no bearing on this particular sign. It gives it a sense of uniqueness and solitude.

So, how do I photograph this? I’m not sure. I haven’t really given it much thought. I think I need to think of the ways I can photograph this idea, without being obvious and more importantly, boring. Do signs usually have mouths? Does the fact the sign talks, mean it must have a mouth? I like the idea that I could put human features on a sign to give the viewer a interpersonal connection.

I think I’ll also need to scout some scenic areas where signs are somewhat important in their role – and find a way to concentrate the composition so that the sign is signified as important, yet subverted with <insert idea here> to have the juxtaposition enhanced.

Stay tuned!

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