'Beyond Images' How We Occupy Public Space | 2022-2024
It’s May 2022. I am on Erasmus in Munich, Germany, and sign up for a photography module titled ‘Beyond Images’. The task is to pick a public space in the city and, over the course of the five month semester, ‘document it’. The brief is simultaneously both loose and regimented, we are to pick a space that we simply enjoy, no further requirements. But, the way in which we must document is prescriptive; five visits to our site of choice without the distraction of a camera. We must pay attention to the scenery, sound, atmosphere, light and people; at varying points of the week and different times of day. We are to focus purely on ‘feeling the space’. Only once the space has been felt do we to sketch the qualities of this space. After further tutorials, we finally return to the site armed with cameras and take our photographs.
When I look back on my work since, I notice the impact that this elective has had on my photographic style. The photos in this curated selection attempt to capture the essence of the places in which they were taken. Ever since, often to the annoyance of my travelling partners, when I’m in a new place with a camera in my hand, I slow right down, pause frequently, and snap sparingly in the moments that, to me, are special.
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Milan Derby | 10 May 2023