Charles Thomson named (and co-founded with Billy Childish) the Stuckists.
As well as an artist (and poet) he is also a relentless photographer,
and has taken over 5000 pictures in the last two years.
He says, " I love photographing people and situations that occur around
me naturally and spontaneously. We're always acting out underlying
emotional and psychological issues unconsciously in our daily life.
Sometimes it's possible to capture an image where this becomes more
apparent - iit works on both mundane and symbolic levels.
I approach the taking of photos as I would the creation of a painting,
and always think of them in terms of shape, colour and composition.
The difference is that I have not made the whole image - a machine has
kindly done that for me. A photo is always locked into a particular time
and place, which reduces its universality, whilst increasing its documentary
value. I do exploit the camera's quirks, with regard to perspective for example,
but I keep the subjects as they were shot. What you see is what the viewfinder
saw. And that is usually what happened of its own accord in the world
(albeit sometimes as a natural reaction to the presence of a camera -
but not specifically staged for it).
The photos that I am in, I took with the camera held at arm's length."
18.5.04
