There are many ways to approach photography, one that is popular for obvious reasons is having a systematic project-based methodology. Then there is coincidence and its close cousin, chance. After a career full to the brim with planning, deadlines, repetition and the like, I now prefer the haphazard and let what Carl Jung described as 'synchronicity' play its part. An Austrian colleague called me ‘the coincidence man’ because of the most unlikely chance encounters that happened when we were working both in London and Vienna. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with projects and plans it’s just that for the moment I’m giving them bit of a swerve.
Coincidences of the photographic kind seem to fall into place more often than one would suppose, perhaps I could describe one that is pretty recent? After one of my recent Zoom talks, a member of the audience described her reaction to some of the imagery as follows:
“I particularly like your approach to women (it’s possible I could phrase that a little better!). I mean, they’re the antithesis of the old “male gaze” stuff; they’re always strong, self-confident women, and that is so good to see.”
A couple of weeks later, I came across a web site featuring the work of the wonderful, London-based photographer, Agenda Brown.
One of Agenda’s projects is ‘The New Chieftains’ https://thenewchieftains.com. So far there are four chapters, all are interesting but what really drew my attention is the one about Nordic Females. He writes:
“Determined, focused and tenacious, the Nordic Female is a powerful being, but without the aggression or competitiveness normally associated with such qualities”.
That seems to chime with (a) my correspondent’s view on the depiction of women described above, (b) Agenda's description of Nordic women and (c) the book ‘An Equal Difference’ published by another of my favourite photographers, Gabrielle Motola which describes gender equality and the prominent role of women in Iceland. You may consider the link between these separate statements is pretty tenuous and I’d agree except that for me, the links fell into place last week when I met someone who drew the various threads together. Her name is Alma, she’s from Reykjavik.