Tuesday, 18th
September, 2012
Easkey, Sligo
We’ve been back in Easkey for
a couple days and the surf has been big but I haven’t been in. People have
surfed or rather gone in on the lefts sporadically but it has looked like hard
work with no rides just a lot of paddling. Yesterday, 5 guys were out on the
right but I didn’t venture in.
We’ve met a few people up
here but as yet no portraits. Conversation has been limited.
The weather keeps people to
themselves or maybe that’s just me. I should make more of an effort but my
reasons for building a relationship needs to be based on more than wanting to
photograph them. Or should it? What are my reasons, do I want to photograph the
surfers or travellers or make friends? Both I guess. The friendship doesn’t
have to be eternal but I feel it does need to span further than a 5 minute
conversation. Maybe I will try to push it today?
Why traipse around Ireland or any
other place for that matter in the hope of riding waves? Riding a wave is
essentially the same although the waves will vary. You, hopefully, catch the
wave and ride it. It would be just as easy to wait at home for the surf to get
better. What is it about travelling to different spots around the coast hoping
that your arrival will coincide with all the elements converging to create a
perfect day? Sometimes it is about escaping the crowds but an early morning
session can achieve this. Is it a deep rooted desire to travel, to go on a
pilgrimage? Is it like “bagging a Munro” or twitching, a desire to collect? Is
it the challenge of pushing yourself? Is it a search to find a place to live
that embodies all of your physical, spiritual and emotional needs? It could be
all of them, it could be none of them.
Bibliography
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& Hudson: London
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Newby E, 1995 A Book of Travellers’ Tales Pan Books
Ltd: London
Perlmutter D and Koppman D,
1999 Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art:
Contemporary Cross-cultural Perspectives State University
of New York Press: New York
Smyth D Editor, 2012 British Journal of Photography Oct Issue
7805
Sontag S, 2002 On Photography Penguin Group: London
Tolstoy L, 1969 What Is
Art? And Essays on Art London: University Press Oxford
Turner V, 1967 The Forest of Symbols Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press
Turner V, 1969 The Ritual Process Penguin 1969
Various, 1987 The Age of God-Kings 3000-1500 BC Time
Life Books: USA
Vernon M, 2012 God The
Big Questions Quercus: London
Copyright Mark King 2012
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