The joys of suffering..

Somewhere in Middle America, 4.00am.

I would say fifty percent or more of my work is made at night, and by that I mean either late in the day when the suns gone down, or early in the morning before the sun comes up. The shorter days of winter make this a little easier time-wise, but then you have the chilly willy aspect, which at times can be troublesome. Last year I spent six months of the winter venturing out at 4.00am to make pictures of urban scenes around the Middle America. The act of going out in sub zero temperatures with a large film camera was a horrible experience, but as is often the case for me, the work I produced made it all worth while. I remember a similar feeling way back in the November of 2006 when I decided to parade the Northern Coast of Scotland with an 8/10” camera while recovering from spinal surgery. I think I shouted at the landscape every day and cursing the day I was born, but the resulting work, North Shores, turned out to be one of my most successful.

There’s nothing new about suffering for ones art. You want to tell the world you were cold, hungry and needed the loo, but no one really cares except maybe the artist.