01
B+WUnpacking some boxes that had
been in storage for a few years,
I discovered some prints and
photo sketchbooks of mine
that I hadn’t looked at for a
long time. What struck me was
a sense of forgotteness about them, which
seemed not only sad, but wasteful.
I had to ask myself if I felt there was
value in them, and if there was, what was
I going to do about it?
The issue of re-use as opposed to recycle
is an interesting one in many ways and has
a subtle but fundamental difference. If we
recycle something, we transform it into
something else, but if we re-use we keep
the original, but use it in a way that gives
it new life – and that goes for anything from clothing to buildings. Chasing the new is
always exciting, but going back to the original demands honesty, focus and, of course,
time. In photography, selecting, editing and discarding – when it’s done for the second,
not the first, time – can reveal some interesting conclusions. When images are fresh and
new, you are still involved in them, you have the taste, the smell and the feel of the time
in which you took the shots, your intention for them and the elation of moving forward- and this all becomes tangled up in your judgement. But with fresh eyes on old work,
you have a more unbiased viewpoint.
As I went through the many images I began to see a number of things: there were
themes and ideas that I hadn’t noticed before, a preoccupation underlying the pictures;
I realised that, by presenting some of them differently (i.e. perhaps printing them
at large scale, or curating them in juxtapositions in a notebook) they could take on
a whole new life and meaning. Also, I felt there was some potential to add text – I could
reinvigorate them with words that ran parallel, allowing the meaning of the pictures
to subtly transform and morph into something else.
It has been an interesting and, I hope, valuable experience. I think, for the first time,
I was seeing my own work from the outside, as though it was someone else’s. But, because
it is, in fact, mine, I can do whatever I want with it. It remains to be seen what will
emerge but the challenge is there for the taking.
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© Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd. 2019© Elizabeth RobertsTHE ART OF RE-USE
EDITOR’S LETTER NOVEMBER 2019Elizabeth Roberts, Editor
[email protected]