I approached the theme of the exhibition in three different ways:
A reflection on passing from Life to Death as both my parents died this summer
A question : Was the naming of the planets a reflection of man’s observation of himself, or does each man/woman reflect all the planets?
Looking for reflections of light and objects, I also found a reflection of a dream I had had ten years previously.
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Reflection on passing from Life to Death
Both my parents died this summer. My mother, unconscious in the last days of her life, seemed to draw from her own source but she also seemed anxious. To my eye, her hands shaped a question mark.
My father, also unconscious, held the hand we gave him with surprising force. There was a strong sense of communication, of receiving and passing on.
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Vigil as dusk is reflecting on the table
Reflecting the Planets?
Is there a set of qualities that can be described very powerfully with the name of one planet?
Could I make ten self-portraits, one to reflect each of the planets?
Click on the cover to see a preview (the photos are a little distorted)
More than ten years ago, I had a dream in which my family was robbing a bank, looking for a treasure in underground passages; it felt half-heroic, half-dishonest. A man stood up and died. Then a young woman and I had to hide in a flat and as we were trying to enter unnoticed a small crowd was looking at a yellow sports car. As I was describing this dream in the following days, I was asked what that yellow sports car could represent. More than one idea came to mind. After this dream whenever I saw a yellow sports car I was reminded of the dream and thought of a more showy, more visible part of me, and why not?
In May 2015, I had to collect my passport from South Kensington and saw this car in a showroom window. As I was trying to photograph it without my reflection the woman on the photograph said goodbye to the man and turned; she must have seen me and this was her reaction.
It is only when I was working on printing it that my friend Peter commented on the number plate. The name of the showroom is
H.R. Owen but of course it could be heroin or heroine.
Living grows round us like a skin, to shut away the outer desolation
For if we clearly mark the furthest deep, we should be dead long years before the grave
But turning around within the homely shell of worry, discontent and narrow joy, we grow and flourish and rarely see the outside dark that would confound our eyes
Some break the shell
I think that they are those who push their fingers through the brittle walls and make a hole
And through this cruel slit they stare out across the cinders of the world with naked eyes
They look both out and in Knowing themselves and too much else besides
“Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)”
Link to the song at the end of the text
Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know
Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open doors
What are you hoping for
Do you know
Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies
That filled our minds
You knew how I loved you
But my spirit was free
Laughin' at the questions
That you once asked of me
Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know
Now looking back at all we've planned
We let so many dreams
Just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long
Before we'll see
How sad the answers
To those questions can be
Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know
Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open doors
What are you hoping for
Do you know