Exercise 2: ​Your Personality

Make a list of some aspects of your personality that make you unique.

● Start taking a few pictures that could begin to express this.

● How could you develop this into a body of work?

I had to read this exercise twice before I realised the author had really asked me to make a list of the aspects of my personality that make me unique. As if.
Everyone is unique and not.
So which part of me do I reveal? My dark side? My public face? How I’d like to be seen?
I really don’t know where to start with this as I’m not comfortable sharing with complete strangers-the good, bad, and or indifferent.
But if I was to make a list it might incorporate the following:

• Addictive -takes many guises, but for me manifested its self alcohol addiction and wreaked havoc for me and those around me for many years
• Will power-haven’t touched an alcoholic drink in over 35 years
• Grateful-some days Im just glad to be here, and this gets me through the boring and mundane
• Absolute-being addictive I tend to view life in absolutes-brilliant or terrible sometimes forgetting that the middle ground -grey- is ok
• Creative

If I was going to make a series out of this, I would keep a photographic diary of my relationship with alcohol to try and communicate the mindset of addiction. Despite being sober for over 30 years, it’s never far from my thoughts and I have developed strategies to deal with the ubiquitousness of alcohol. Aspects I would consider would include:

• navigating social gatherings
• advertising & placement of alcohol-the daily renminders
• the ever-present uneasiness of addiction
• The community of support that helps and shapes my life and mindset
•  

I have no doubt this would be a very personal piece of work; challenges I see:

• Finding or creating images that communicate how I feel
• Finding a style to communicate with-literal? metaphor? Abstract?
• Duration-I wish I’d started a project like this when I got sober and kept a record of the progression
•  

Watching and listening to Elena Brotherus has given me food for thought, especially her comment about getting out there, doing the work, and curating afterwards.
‘work more than stay at home and think’

Some initial images for the series-I would read these as more of a mood board or starting point for a direction.

Some parts of my life are a blur, indeed some chunks are missing altogether.

Often I wish I could go back in time and guide my you nger self.

Social gatherings are hell for me. I rarely sit still, always take my camera and gnerally hide behind it. It gets me through the evening.

Walking by a pub in Dublin and I see a man walikng in, and it kicks-off, the internal converstion and longing to go and sit at a bar and order a pint of Guinness. If I entertain it lonng enough it will begin to be plausible.

Homeless or people who live on the street resonate deeply. At one point I was not far away from that. It echos to this day.

Stinking thinking