Photos x Words - The Beginning
Sharing my photographic journey through the images I make and why I make them.
A new journey….
I’ve never really thought very much about combining words with my photography - I guess I've always thought it should stand or fall on its own, and that was good enough. But recently I’ve been wondering…
Because I do in fact think quite deeply about what I do (and increasingly so as I go on). My problem is that I often don’t follow my thoughts through and come to any conclusions, or even leave them at a place where I can sensibly pick them up again and develop them further. So I’m hoping that starting this Substack will help me to slow down, interrogate what I do a little more and then present those thoughts, and therefore my work - my actual photography (which is what I love) - more coherently. Well, we’ll have to see - it’s worth a go!
I hope you’ll join me…
I’m hoping people who love photography will join me here, but also people who love stories because that, if anything, is what I aspire for my photography to be - a visual medium for telling stories. Which is another reason I thought starting this newsletter might work for me - it seems a natural place for stories to be told.
I aim to post once or twice a fortnight (it’ll settle down into a pattern over time I’m sure) and, certainly for now, everything I do and offer will be free to all subscribers. It may well always be that way: I’m not a great fan of separating out content according to whether someone can, or is prepared to, pay or not. But there may be some situations where that might be appropriate - I haven’t quite worked it all out yet. Again, we’ll see.
So, who am I?
My name’s Keith. I live just outside the market town of Fakenham in beautiful North Norfolk in the UK and have been making photographs professionally for over 15 years, specialising currently in work for charity and non-profit clients as well as working in the commercial sector. I’m married to artist wife Debbie, and I have a longstanding Christian faith which is very important to me.
What I’m intending to focus on here though is not my ‘work’ photography, or indeed me, but my self-directed documentary and art photography projects. I’m continually in the process of making these, loving the challenges - and the pitfalls - and from time to time I publish and exhibit this work. It’s where my passion lies, and this is the work I want to share with you.
And, finally, some photos….
To give you a flavour of the sort of work I find rewarding, here are a few shots from a very recent adventure (a couple of weeks or so ago) photographing the annual 3,000 person strong pilgrimage of the Filipino community in the UK to Walsingham, a small village close to where I live with a huge and fascinating history as a Christian pilgrimage site. The photography of stories based around faith is something I return to often, and I’m sure it will feature going forward in this newsletter.
I’m building some of these images into a photo zine at the moment, and some may also make their way into my larger Walsingham project (current working title - ‘England’s Nazareth’), but for now I just hope you enjoy them - and maybe that they inspire you to consider supporting me by sharing and/or subscribing to this newsletter.
More soon,
Keith
Welcome to Substack Keith, it's a very supportive and inspiring community here. Your project sounds and looks really interesting, looking forward to seeing more of this work.
An absolutely wonderful and inspiring read (not to forget the stunning photography too) - I very look forward to seeing your future posts here
Very best wishes
Dom