embraced in nature
feeling the freedom to roam
politics of time
Project Ginko is approaching a year old now, and recently I have been considering where it is heading.
Yesterday helped me to develop some clarity towards understanding one potential direction.
I spent yesterday talking about ‘sense of place’ with Katie at her chalet on the Humberson Fitties. I am viewing ‘sense of place’ as a potential research project for Project Ginko.
As the time flew by the conversation went from why people embrace the ‘fitties lifestyle’ and what that lifetyle is for people. Katie made a creative spanish omelette and Loretta, one of her neighbours joined us for lunch.
Surrounded by Nature: Rosmarinus Officinalis
As I left Katies in hte afternoon I noticed a green plant with violet coloured flowers on it, I think it is a Rosmarinus Officinalis from the Lamiaceae family. It is non-toxic to dogs, cats, and horses and in our everyday English language we know it more commonly as ‘Rosemary’. It seems to be a nice plant for humans because in folk medicine it has been used to alleviate several diseases including headache, dysmenorrhea, stomachache, epilepsy, rheumatic pain, spasms, nervous agitation, improvement of memory, hysteria, depression, as well as physical and mental fatigue (according to the National Library of Medicine ……. click here ). With the current politics of life, maybe we need to embrace more Rosemary.
When Katie cooks, she will often head out to her garden to bring back some herbs, and I imagine after all the years she spent as a nurse she knows the benefits natural herbs gives us.
I left Katie and her chalet and as she headed off to walk her dog on the beach I drove off to take some photographs at the far end of the fitties (selection shown above). I was thinking more about this concept of ‘a sense of place’ and what it means as I took the photographs. I am now questioning how these photographs, and the haiku they inspire can be a viewed as research data!
For the past year I have been taking photographs and selecting some to write a haiku in 60 seconds for. This has led me to think about this sense of place, and wondering if there one ‘sense of place’ about somewhere or if a sense of place is unique to each person experiencing that place? I think my research is becoming ‘grounded’.
Yesterday, I tried to encapsulate my personal fitties ‘sense of place’ in the lead image and the haiku it prompted me to write in 60 seconds. I think it is a start to something more.
When I take a photograph that really interests me I often write a little haiku. I write them in three lines of 5/7/5 syllables. They do not have to rhyme, they do not have to describe the photograph, they are simply what the image led me to write. I only allow myself 60 seconds to write it. It is about being in the moment of seeing the photograph, just as my photographs are made in the moment of seeing.
- The Snowdrop Finale
- Test post
- Abstracts of Whatton Photobook
- Ginko009: Bristol Paintworks in May
- Ginko008: Bristol Docks in May
In a haiku world a ginko is a walk through nature observing
and as I ginko I make images of the things I notice
I then write a haiku in a moment as a response the images I make, that makes me stop to think
Finally I blog here about what the image and haiku make me think about
© Stewart Wall 2022
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