Right now I am writing this with just a memory of the image that you’ll find below. I pondered some time about which image to discuss, and settled for this one, thinking it was very simple in construction, so may prove more of a challenge to discuss. Imagine you are the author of the image in question; the thought of that image quickly conjures up a lot more than a description of the images attributes.

I created this image in a village called West Horndon, which is set 20 miles east from base on my 4 x 4 x 4 map plotter (base point Harringay, north London). It was my second visit to West Horndon, and was at some time within the ‘release period’ of the pandemic, following the first major lockdown. In fact, it must have been July, as I know that hairdressers had only just been allowed to resume their jobs, and I spoke to some very happy hairdressers later that day. This being a village with an old demographic, they had told me how lovely it was for some of their elderly clients to be able to come out and socialise with others after a long period of isolation.

When I took on the role of editor of fLIP magazine there was a feature called The Photograph That Inspired Me: A written account of a photograph that inspired the featured contributor. You never saw the image they were discussing, and because of that it was my least favourite part of the magazine. I immediately cut the feature! I am sure other readers enjoyed the feature more than I did, and it is true that you can explain an image to someone and hope to bring it to life, but there is nothing quite like looking at the image you are describing, or discussing, even if we will all place our own interpretation on it once we have seen it!

Here it comes!

This image was created on Kodak Portra film, which renders colours in a beautifully subtle way: perfect for portraying the subtleties of project 4 x 4 x 4. It was a bright cloudy afternoon, and I had been walking through a suburban backstreet which I had not visited before. It was summertime, and the hum of a lawn mower carried in the air. I passed by the two story, semi-detached homes with an alertness for photo-opportunities. Memory tells me that I had stopped to record a couple of scenes before I saw an opening the size of an alleyway, but with a grassy base. It ran between houses on either side, and a small railway bridge arched above, a short distance down the track. I walked past the houses, and gardens, under the bridge, then a field of hay opened up before me (or possibly to the side!). It was a sizeable field, with a narrow path etched out around the perimeter. An official-looking sign had been nailed to a post requesting Dog Owners to keep their dogs on leads, citing the wildlife that inhabits the field, and how it should not be disturbed. The light carried a soft haze, with just enough detail to make it interesting. I took a low position, to place myself in the heart of the action. A shallow depth of field draws attention to the foreground and allows the viewer to appreciate the construction of the individual straws of hay. The tallest straw breaks the horizon, and makes for a more interesting composition. I find this a calm image that I think will make it to the final edit some day.

Let me know if you have a favourite image you could wax lyrical about, or maybe you can choose an image, and sit with it for a while. See where it takes you in your mind!

Until next time, Amanda x