(Trish Morrissey, Katy McDonnell, October 5th, 2007)

(Bjørn Venø, original frame for the image “The Solitary Sand Corn, Liberation of Truth” 2008)

When I opened up Portfolio issue 49 I was amused by the picture above top from Trish Morrissey. We are used to seeing holiday pictures of people in the same backdrops. So when artists chose a public holiday space as their play ground they are bound to find another artist with the same idea. What I particularly find funny is that we have nearly the same composition, even though I alter it drastically for the final image. It is as if we used a designated photo spot, something one can come across when visiting famous land marks.

Does this devalue the images, make them common? No personally I think it adds another story to the image. For the work by Trish, it is perfectly natural that their should be many pictures in the same location, since she is emulating holiday snap shoots. For me it is not as strait forward, but the spaces I shoot in are spaces I have a connection to, very often it is a child hood memory. In my image above it is a space I used to visit once a year as a child. A beach where I would build the most amassing sand castles. In this picture though I’m in turmiol regressing back to child hood. But the memory of happier times is still their, but in the collective memory of times on the beach, as portrayed by Trish.