For about a year now I've been meaning to write a post about running and photography and how they meshed together to form a sense of my local environment. You might think a year would be enough time for me to have worked out what I wanted to say, but it's still very vague I'm afraid so you might have to bear with me.
I first moved to Southfields in South-West London about two and a half years ago. Myself and Lizzie picked the area because it was close to our workplaces and we could just about afford to rent a flat there. Other than that we knew nothing about the area. We did all the things you do when you move to a new area, we visited the local pubs (purely in the name of research of course), tested the local takeaways, chose our favourite newsagents etc. We plodded along, slowly accumulating a little store of local knowledge, making the odd discovery of a new shop, bus route or a shortcut to work from time to time.
It wasn't until we started running that a sense of the local area in a geographical sense really began to take root. I was such a stranger to exercise that it was a truly unexpected pleasure to slowly discover I could run more than 100 metres without collapsing. In my eagerness to push myself further and further I kept devising new, longer running routes. I'm not a natural runner by any means, so I have to find as many forms of distraction as possible so I don't notice how painful it is. I soon found that the best form of distraction was to run along new routes that I didn't know at all. That way, the fear of getting lost and the novelty of seeing new areas kept my mind occupied whilst I plodded along. If it hadn't been for the running, I'm embarrassed to say that we might never have discovered places like Wimbledon Common despite it being on our doorstep.
About six months after I'd started running, I got stuck into a new hobby of buying old film cameras. Very quickly the two interests of running and photography began to intertwine. As with the running, the desire to find new and interesting things to photograph led me further afield. As I ran, I'd be trying to keep an eye out for potential shots that I could come back and take at a later date.
I've found that for it to work best, you have to try and view your local area as if you were on holiday, looking at everything in a slightly detached way. By trying to look at everything as if you were seeing it for the first time, you end up spotting interesting views you might otherwise have missed. Every area is rich in potential photographs, it's just a case of getting your eye in and trying to see everything afresh.
This month's
Guardian Camera Club assignment was night photography, giving me the perfect excuse to finish off some shots I'd had on my mind for ages. It's fascinating how different familiar areas can look at night, a grey tower block can suddenly become a glowing, multi-coloured grid of lights for example. I've really enjoyed night photography, it's so much harder to predict how your shots will turn out so you get more unexpected surprises – although that may just be down to my amateurish approach!
The Guardian assignment was perfectly timed as we're just about to move house. After two and a half years, we're now moving across London to Brockley (insert your own vegetable-based joke here). It was really nice to have one last trip around Wandsworth, capturing shots of the places I know so well from my running. I shot four films in total, three were shot exclusively along one of my favourite running routes, from Southfields, up to Wimbledon Common, along Parkside, through Wimbledon Village and down onto Durnsford Road. The fourth film I took in one evening on my walk home from work to my flat – it was one last chance to capture all the sights I've been passing on a daily basis.
I'm now really looking forward to running my way round Brockley, Ladywell, Crofton Park, Honor Oak, Telegraph Hill, Blackheath, Greenwich etc (maybe not all in one go!). So if you see a small, hairy, sweaty man running along slowly muttering about cameras and looking a bit lost then it'll probably be me. Please feel free to say hello and point me in the right direction to my new home...
