Weekly Portrait #36 – “People I now know” (Working Title) – Uncle John.
This weeks Weekly Portrait Project is a deeply personal one, please meet John, or Uncle John as he is to me. Illustrator, Artist, Musician, Veteran Cyclist, Woodsman, Series 1 Landrover Owner and so much more to me as a virtual surrogate father. I have posted before about Queen Anne Lodge in the village of Milton, just outside Cambridge, being a sanctuary for me, here is the man along with my Auntie Gaye who makes it such a place.
My visit last weekend was arranged a long time ago as Uncle John had a book launch I wished to attend, more of that another time, but certain demons have been rearing their heads again recently and this visit could not have been better timed. Self-understanding, self-doubt and soul searching are frequent bedfellows that are almost a cliche within the creative mind, but when that spills over the consequences can often be the exact opposite of that creativity, sometimes even destructive. Something I have kept to myself until now is the healing and cathartic aims of this project, yes I set out to challenge myself to produce a body of work throughout the year, yes it was to give me something to blog about and share on social media, yes it has made me put myself out of my comfort zone at times, yes it has been generally lighthearted, but it is also a form of self-medication. It has forced me to reevaluate who I am as a photographer, as an artist, too easy is it to sit in my studio and wonder why, thanks to this project I have had to make contact with sitters, figure out locations, try to tell a story. It’s just about working, but without the help, support and counsel of people such as my Uncle I’m not sure I’d still be in this game at all!
I’ll stop that train of thought there before it goes too deep into my psyche, scroll down an enjoy the portraits I shot with my Uncle John this weekend, using his 62 year old Landrover like it was intended to be used and visiting his latest commission on the nose of a Yakovlev Yak-52, he is a hugely successful and international renowned illustrator but took up a new challenge for Ian to create a truly unique piece in on a material he’d never painted on with sign-writter paints he’d never used before…..
Drop me a message if you’d be interested in being a sitter/victim.
For those of you who missed my other instalments or are new to my site, I have set a challenge of shooting a self-initiated portrait every week for this year. You can find them here My Diary. It’s a deliberately broad brief started under the working title of “People I know” already renamed “People I now know” I’m looking forward to the journey, not knowing the destination.
I’d also like to hear your thoughts, please comment on my Facebook Page here:RupertBarker Photographer on Facebook