Kat Eye Studio

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Travel Shifts

What is your idea of “travel?”

Maybe it’s fun, seeking experiences that help you enjoy the moment.
Maybe it’s relaxation, sitting with your feet up looking at a beautiful view.
Maybe it’s exploration, experiencing something new and different.

For me, “travel” is learning. There is something about being out of my usual environment and in different places that opens me to new things. I’m more aware and observant of my surroundings and of myself. Travel brings moments of fun, relaxation and exploration, but it also brings moments of insight and clarity. Especially travelling alone, where you don’t have someone to turn to every moment of the day. I had to become comfortable with myself.

Off to Work, King’s Cross Station

I’m always seeking to understand new things, to grow and expand my point of view. Maybe that’s why travel has become so important to me — the learning. Maybe that’s why this trip was so important to me… It wasn’t just about teaching the on location workshops and connecting with friends. It was about connecting with myself, my art and exploring what comes next. I didn’t expect or seek those things, but they came along the way.

Looking Back, near Brick Lane

Some of the shifts will take a while to make themselves known. But there were some shifts that were more obvious, because they were visible in my photographs. Instead of always seeking the empty view within the frame, I started to capture people. Not very many of my images included people, but more of them did than ever before. And, funny thing, these images are the ones that stuck in my mind the most. I had to go through my photographs and find them first. Share them first.

Smoke Break, St. Pancras Station

Part of me wonders why and part of me knows to just go with it. It will all become clear with time.

Into the Light, Westminster Underground Station

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Mystery Revealed

As I went back in time in my photo file to find an image that would reveal yesterday’s mystery, I came across this photo of the ceiling in the Gaudí designed Casa Batlló. Actually, I came across two photos of this ceiling, and I remember them well. At the time I was editing, there were two different compositions I processed similarly and liked, but I couldn’t decide between them. Since I couldn’t decide, I just left them in the file and didn’t do anything with them. As I reviewed these images yesterday, this specific composition jumped out at me as being the more interesting of the two. It was absolutely, crystal clear in my mind. Why had I had such a debate long ago?

This is a great example of how we grow and change over time. My style and eye has been refined since I worked with these photos eight months ago, and I have a different response to the images from that time. I see the world from a new place, a shifted perspective. Have you ever gone back in time, and discovered wonderful things in your old photos? There are many gems for you there, I guarantee it.

No one was able to guess what yesterday’s image was, and I’m not surprised. It was a bit abstract, and requires a little bit of a history lesson around architect Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí was inspired by observing the world around him, and the catenary arch is one example of this philosophy that you can see in many of his designs. A catenary arch is the shape that a chain or rope will make when at rest, the forces perfectly balanced. When you turn this shape upside down, you have the shape of a very strong arch for building.

The image I showed yesterday is the mirror reflection of a grouping of chains that Gaudí used to design a cathedral. The hanging chains form a series of loops that become arches and domes when viewed in reflection. The whole set up of this exhibit was very neat, with the mirror and the shadow on the wall to help illustrate the concept. Here are is an image of the chains “right side up” to help you see what you were looking at.

Here is yesterday’s image of the view in the mirror, in color. A little more context helps you understand what you are seeing, doesn’t it? It’s amazing how we as photographers can manipulate reality, just by including or excluding context. That’s what makes this medium art. We, as the artists, get to decide.

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Creative Space

I come at you this morning from a blank page. No preconceived notion of what photo I will choose, what words I will write. No agenda. This is what creative space feels like. Breathe into it. Let the ideas expand to fill the space, let them go. New ideas will come to fill the space.

This weekend I spent some time being creative. Editing photos for fun rather than to get something together for a specific project. Creating a collage intuitively, to see what comes out. I need the time and space for these things, in order to maintain my balance and perspective. Do you find the same?

So I start again with a blank page. Sometimes the blank page can be frightening, but right now it feels wonderful. Maybe it’s more like sitting in an empty room than a blank page. A room where I can see the door but I’m just going to pause here and rest for a while. Breathe in, breathe out.

Photo is from Casa Batlló, by architect Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, Spain.

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Images and Words

If an image is worth a thousand words, why do I find myself writing so much? This is an interesting quandary I have found myself in… As my passion for photography has increased, so has my need to express it. Not only in images, in words. Where I took the photo, why it caught my eye, how it makes me feel, what I’ve learned from the experience, how you can do it too… writing, writing, writing.

The surprising thing, to me, is that I have discovered that I enjoy it. I like to write. I like to find the words to express myself, to bring an idea into reality. To help someone understand something new, maybe see things in a different way. I never though of myself as a writer, yet here I am writing, almost every day. I think I’ll add it to my little “I am” statement…

I am an artist, a photographer and writer, and I have a unique vision 
to share with the world.

It feels a little weird. Like a new style I’m trying on, one that looks good but I’m not comfortable with it yet. I think I need to wear it a little while and see how it feels before I go off and change my “About Me” page. 🙂

Speaking of writing, what brought all of these thoughts to my mind –  my second article for Jenny of Rising Sun Coaching is now posted over on her blog. If you are interested in learning more about how I found my passion and purpose during my time in Italy, and how you can too, then give it a read. 

See you next week! We are off traveling this weekend. Venice again, the in-laws are in town for a visit. I know, rough life. 🙂

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The Means or the End?

A stairway is a means to an end, a way to get from one level to another. But sometimes, the “means” can be separated from the “end.” It becomes important in itself, like this stairway in the attic of Casa Battlo in Barcelona. Yes, it’s a stairway. That’s the obvious and practical “end.” But it is a beautiful work of art, nicely framed and ready to be enjoyed, in it’s own right. The “means” develops an identity on its own, a purpose of its own, without considering the intended “end.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the process of creating art, creating my photography. The process of creating – of noticing and seeing and capturing and playing – is as important as the end result. The photo that I present here each day is just the obvious and practical end of my art, like the purpose of a stairway to get you from one level to the next. But the fact is that the process, the means, is probably more important to me, the creator. That’s why I continue to create, why all artists continue to create. If it wasn’t, we’d all be done with the first work of art we are really happy with, especially if we aren’t doing this for a living. (Getting paid for art is another kind of wonderful “end” for the artistic process.)

Ursula K. LeGuin said, “It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.”

The journey, for me, is the creation of the photograph. The beauty of this “means” being it’s own “end” is that process of creating is not finite, is an ongoing, never-ending, renewable resource. Infinite. Regardless of what I created or shared yesterday, I have more to create today and tomorrow.

Isn’t that an incredibly positive and exciting way to think about it? I encourage you to think of your art, whether it’s photography or writing or cooking or yoga, in the same way. The end is not the purpose of the creative process, the means is!

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