First posted 23 November 2010

I’ve been conscious, that for a while my blog posts have not been as frequent as I would like. I have so many things taking up my time and I am pulled in so many directions, -something has to give.
Well, quite a few things have to give actually, I’ve got about forty films sitting in my darkroom waiting to be processed, a box of exposed 5×4 sheets (no idea how many) a few 10×8 sheets and a lot of tidying and sorting of the darkroom and studio. A LOT.
I also have ten years worth of negatives which have never been printed which I’m dying to delve into.
I don’t seem to have the time to contribute to photography forums or even keep up with emails.
I don’t have a television to distract me and I survive quite well on five hours sleep a night, so where is the time going?

I’m not going to bore you all with a list of the things I have to do, I just wanted to say that life often gets in the way of what is important and I feel that I perhaps need to put my own work ahead of other responsibilities sometimes.
When I’m on my deathbed, will I be proud of my output? or will I be glad I kept the lawn neat?

4 Comments

1. vicky
   Posted 23/11/2010 at 12:46 pm

   My list is longer than your list

   At the moment (and for the next couple of years) my time is family intense with kids exams etc then hopefully there will be space for all the projects I want to do, if I’m lucky.
   I guess being out of the whole loop of what’s going on in the art world doesn’t really matter, it’ll still be there when I try to pick up again.

2. Indra
   Posted 23/11/2010 at 2:06 pm

   That sounds so familiar! Life has this annoying habit of getting in the way of things. I finally came around to processing my films today (still not all of them) which have been sitting in my darkroom for months so I understand where you’re coming from. Good luck with all that!

   Best,
   Indra

3. Dayn
   Posted 23/11/2010 at 2:13 pm

   “Here lies Andrew Sanderson.
   Erstwhile photographer.
   He kept a tidy lawn”

   Sounds good to me.

4. mark lacey
   Posted 25/11/2010 at 11:54 pm

   What was that famous quote, “life is what happens while your planning what to do with your life” or something like that. I have a big family at home and everything takes at least three times longer than I ever planned it to.
   I never ever let films hang around, I can’t wait to see if they’ve turned out ok, but printing is quite another thing, I don’t think I’ll ever catch up.
   I even tried doing nothing but 8×10 contact printed and I still could not keep up, perhaps one has to be like a monk and focus on this to the exclusion of everything else, only trouble is bills still have to be paid and that bloody grass keeps growing!

   May the light stay good for you, Mark.