The above photos are a selection from Ian Aleksander Adams' photobook entitled Gray Days.
While checking my blogs this evening I read a blurb about Ian Aleksander Adams. It referenced his work Gray Days and a brief essay that his mother wrote on the work. Intrigued, I investigated a little further and fell in love with this series. It is a perfect example of what I want to accomplish with my work, that is, a series of images of seemingly unrelated instances intertwined to create a story. The imagery itself is still, even in moments that show some kind of action, they are quiet and reflective and reminiscent of those moments when I find myself just focusing on one small, insignificant detail of my day. Even more interesting, was his mother's commentary on the imagery. Truthfully, I did not finish reading what she was writing as it hit very close to home. She wrote:
Looking at the somber, muted, personal and a bit alienated images, I can relate to the mood and existential angst. What is the meaning of this proscribed life? I also feel a bit guilty. Perhaps my son would be out shooting a more engaging world, if his younger life had been different, or his genes. Maybe his images would convey the vibrant beauty and energy of the world around him if I, his mother, had been more able to connect him to it, to live with verve and joy rather than fighting fatigue and the sense of clawing negativity on many days, for many years. Maybe his work would have more clarity, color, drama, and be striking. Some of his early stuff was. Why is he pulling away from that? What is the message he is reaching to make- is it partly to me?
It reminded me of something that transpired between my mother and me when I showed her my portfolio last semester. She was silent, at first, and when asked what it made her feel she said it made her feel like a failure as a mother. She's nothing of the sort, but that is, I suppose, what the aim of my work is in a way. It is somber and brooding, not what one would expect from me on the outset I'm sure. I feel almost as though it is my purpose to create such work, I just feel as though it doesn't fit in the environment that I exist in at the moment.
