One Year is a project through which I intend to construct a daily photographic record of a single view: the view from my study window at around 8.00a.m. each day when I sit down to work. One Year will annotate each picture with a note of the weather for that morning and the morning’s main news headline from the BBC News site. In addition, there will be a note taking a key sentence or two from my daily journal.
8th August 2014
Light cloud
Obama authorises air strikes on Iraq
…and the Reaper finally caught up with all three members of Atomic Rooster’s classic Death Walks Behind You line-up
9th August 2014
Sunny
US aid drop follows fresh Iraq raids
Vincent Crane, 14 February 1989, overdose of painkillers
10th August 2014
Heavy rain
US in new strikes on Iraq militants
Paul Hammond, 1992, accidental methadone overdose
11th August 2014
Sunny intervals
Angry Iraqi PM in show of force
John Du Cann, 21 September 2011, heart attack
12th August 2014
Sunny intervals
US actor Robin Williams found dead
In the hands of David Markson, this would have meaning; an alchemical creation, a crock of artistic gold
13th August 2014
Sunny intervals
US sends more advisers to Iraq
In my hands, it seems more like a crock of pretentious shit
14th August 2014
Light cloud
Iraq mountain rescue unlikely – US
But they’re shooting our kids
Artist Statement
… “natural history” has no actual existence other than through the process of human history, the only part which recaptures this historical totality, like the modern telescope whose sight captures, in time, the retreat of nebulae at the periphery of the universe.
Guy Debord – Society of the Spectacle
The purpose of this project is to explore continuity and change. Over the course of a year, I will build up a daily visual record of the same view. Despite my best efforts, though, I will not be able to replicate the ‘same’ view each day: it is subject to changes in the environment, such as the weather or the time the sun rises. But it is also affected by changes caused by me, the observer. For instance, my feelings that morning may change the way I hold the camera or, inadvertently, the image may show my breath on the glass from getting too close to the window.
Looking out at the view on this, the first morning of One Year, I see a scene comprising sky, trees and rooftops. I don’t see much evidence of human activity just yet, but that may come later in the year when the leaf cover begins to thin out. Being on a flight path, we also see the odd vapour trail or aeroplane light in the sky too.
Some of the changes that will become evident will be pretty obvious, such as the seasons. Other changes will be more subtle. My daily notes will give some insight into what is going on inside my head that morning, from my journal entry, and there will also be a record of what is happening in the world in general, from the news headline.
But the ‘view’ I am recording in One Year is not neutral, it is selected and framed by me. Similarly, my journal extracts are selected from a much larger body of work; it is the ‘insight’ into my thinking that I choose to present. Even the ‘news headline’ cannot be regarded as neutral, for it is subject to BBC editorial bias.
But there is a third party in the One Year process, one that is outside of my control. That person is you, the reader of this blog, the interested observer of the project. I want people to bring their own interpretations, views and insights to this project. All comments received will be reproduced in my weekly project reports.
