But back when I bought the photosmart camera, one of the very first things i did was to find somewhere nice to take some photos, self portraits. I will be brutally honest, my self portraits on 35mm film are somewhat terrible and downright scary. They will NEVER see the light of day! Moving swiftly on...
I remember driving in my old Vaulhall Cavalier car, and it was in a part of Norfolk that I do not know very well, it is East of Norwich and it was a very hot day. This would be mid summer 2003, and it was incredibly hot that day.
I Stumbled upon this abandoned church, seemingly miles from any village or parish, as remote as can be for a Norfolk Church. I found somewhere close by to park and tentatively got out of my car, along with my camera gear. Now I have already mentioned that it was a hot day, and I was not kidding, and my outfir for that day made sure I woudl suffer for my art. Yes, my outfit, a black PVC dress, black stillettos, and this adorable black see through wrap, which was floor length and very late 90s/early 2000s.
Happily, the church really was abandoned, so i took out my camera, eyed a few compositions up and got to work, my HP camera on a cheap tripod from Jessops, the type with leg braces and windy up and down neck.
On reflection, maybe I should not have taken this photo, however, I still love this image.
If it had not been for that photo looking so good, I would probably never have gotten where I am now with my self portraits. I did use a few more churches for shoots, but my urbex adventures did not stop at old churches, I also found a very vandalised and stripped out care home in South Lincolnshire around 2004 or there abouts, I visited a few times and after a while grew more confident.
I would have to climb through a window to get inside, then carefully, quietly, making sure no one was around, I would set up my camera and take image after image.
None of these images are saved digitally, this was before USB sticks were a thing too, I could have written it to a CD but I didnt have the ability at that point, so I printed most of the good images and saved them to a photobook, which I still have to this day. One of my fav images from here is the one below, in a dress that I made myself.
So that camera set me on a path that would last 20 years and here I am, at the brink of turning 50 in two years, still doing self portraits, properly.
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