Easter Holiday Walking
24th April, 2019
“Walking gives me time to think… There is this moment where you disconnect and just stop mentally…– where you leave behind the eyes that you normally see with and look at the world with new perspectives”, says Photographer, Diana Markosian https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/diana-markosian-i-dont-know-where-im-going-when-i-walk/
Reflecting on how some people find the crowds in Whitstable irritating on a hot sunny bank holiday weekend, for me the opposite is true, as it’s a creative time for documentary/street photography. Tourists and visitors are generally relaxed, friendly, ambling around at a leisurely pace, looking at shops or at the beach and enjoying themselves. Going out with the camera on meandering walks, watching where the sunlight is falling, there is always something to look at and photograph, even when I have no pre-conceived ideas of what I am looking for in advance.
A few weeks ago, the Whitstable Carnival new organisers, Writer Chris Stone, and Belinda Murray asked if I had any old Carnival photographs in my photo library that they could use. I put a gallery together on my website with documentary series taken at the Whitstable Carnivals in August 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2010. It was the first time of viewing these images from four different years all together and I started thinking about the high street shops and businesses in some of the photos that have been changing over the years. Some come and go and at times people cannot recall things that are disappearing, until they look at old photographs. The next Whitstable carnival is on Saturday August 3rd, 2019 and I have agreed to document it this year.
Over the Easter weekend I knew I would be taking family get together photos and seeing friends. Aside from this, I didn’t set out with any ideas of what I was going to photograph on my solitary walks but responded to what was happening in Whitstable and this series of images is the result.
Diana Markosian says about walking -“It’s a form of meditation. There’s a mental archive of images that I am making, they are not for anyone but me. The walk serves as a form of inspiration. The walk becomes the art.”
Thank you, Diana, for sharing your ideas, inspiring thoughts and expressing them in such an interesting and articulate way!
