Stop reading now. Yes, I do mean you. I had an idea the other day for a Grand Project. I want to write my autobiography in pictures, because it would be much better than words. Not pictures of myself, but pictures I have taken or made, and pieces of letters that I have written to people. I came up with this theory that if you put together all the things someone has made like that, you get a much better impression of them in your mind than if they try and tell you themselves. Seeing through the eye behind the camera, if you like. Then, you can combine this with bits of writings they have made when they weren't looking to make an impression. Emails they put together in haste, little jottings to friends. Things you don't think about writing too much. It would help avoid confusion. THINGS IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO CONFUSE, NUMBER 332: Aureoles and Oreos. I first had this autobiography idea when watching a lovely documentary about Surrealism on the TV. And I thought: a visual autobiography which contains no pictures at all of its subject. It's not really a *surreal* idea, to be honest. A surreal autobiography would just have pictures of random-seeming things. Letting the subconscious through and all that. Pictures of: an oil refinary, a lemon, a packet of biscuits and the corrugated surface of a field, all in sequence. All connected to me, and in some kind of logical order; but unless you *are* me you don't know what those connections are. Unless you know that I like eating biscuits. THINGS IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO CONFUSE, NUMBER 479: Lobsters and knee-high boots. Of course, to make it worth writing an autobiography -- even one without me in it -- I'd have to do something interesting so people would actually know who I was. Unless the pictures were *really* good, which would be unlikely. I could write someone else's autobiography, I suppose. I was still thinking about My Pictorial Life when I went to a rather nice photography exhibition that is on at the moment. It briefly covers the entire history of photography, which is quite annoying because it reminds me that I am unlikely to ever be good enough to create anything like that. Maybe I would have been a hundred and fifty years ago, but not today when there are so many photographers lying about the place. I have to try and remind myself that each one of these pictures represents a pinnacle; one wonderful image from a lifetime's work. And good photographers become good photographers by taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures and throwing ninety per cent of them away. Whenever I feel an attack of surrealism coming on, I reread bits of Alice In Wonderland. It's a lovely book, and I think it's one of the first surreal books in the same way that the Odyssey is the first ever novel. My parents gave me a lovely hardback annotated edition last Christmas, and I love to light lots of candles and snuggle up in bed with it. THINGS IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO CONFUSE, NUMBER 927: Cabbages and kings. There was a photograph by Lewis Carroll in the exhibition. An ugly young girl, about seven or eight, wearing a nightdress and stood by a bed. Tne card underneath the picture said "Revd. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)". A foreign man with a bushy moustache came up to me, and said "I know Lewis Carroll took photographs. Does this say 'Lewis Carroll'?" I think he was confused by the brackets. I need something to inspire me to photograph. Otherwise, I just think of the city and can't think of any new images I want to capture; then, when I *do* see something I don't have my camera and can't record it. Or, I daren't, because it involves shooting a stranger. I only dare take pictures of people I don't know when they are a long long way away and probably won't notice. THINGS IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO CONFUSE, NUMBER 15283: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and a rice pudding. A random thought I had earlier whilst watching the telly: Does that bloke from Travis model his hair on Richard Gillanders? I think we should be told. Right, that's it. I'm going to shut up now. xx gneissy -- ICQ 66321009 http://www.btinternet.com/~wpsalt/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+