The Beginning

So where did this all start? I mean honestly, who heads out thinking, I’m going to take blurry photos today?

For me it began about a year ago, on a Greek ferry between two islands. It was hot, too hot, and I was killing time on a shaded deck surrounded by people at wobbly metal tables and plastic chairs. Bored, I pulled out my camera. I’d just bought a manual aperture, manual focus lens, hoping to get back a bit of that hands-on feel that modern autofocus tends to take away.

With the preview set to black and white, I started pointing it at anything, coffee cups, chair legs, whatever. Did I mention I was bored? Then I got braver and aimed it at the people nearby. That’s when it happened.

As I slowly turned the focus ring, I hit that sweet spot where the figures weren’t sharp, but they were still recognisable. Suddenly the scene wasn’t about detail, it was about shapes and light, soft edges and uncertainty. It looked dreamlike. Anything could be happening in that frame. And I liked it.

A man came to the metal steps in front of me. I adjusted the focus until the hard edges of the stairs melted away and his body stretched thin, almost unrecognisable. That was it, I was hooked.

When I got home, I looked through those ferry shots. They were unlike anything I’d made before. Only a handful, but enough to plant a seed. I pushed the idea aside at first and went back to my usual landscapes, but it kept tugging at me.

A few months later, I took that little manual lens into the city for some street photography. At first nothing caught my eye. Then I remembered the blur. I switched the camera back to black and white, dialled the focus just shy of sharp, and went hunting for light and shadows. I turned a corner, spotted a church spire, waited for someone to walk past, and caught a lone figure in the frame. Magic.

Since then, I’ve gone back countless times chasing that feeling. Each time, trying to catch something that sits between real and unreal, detail and mystery.

So what’s next?

Honestly, I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. I’ve started a new project, exploring the hidden shapes that appear when people slip through patches of light and shadow. It’s unpredictable, imperfect, and that’s exactly why I love it.