The camera can easily be made to tell the most outrageous lies, and highly entertaining they often are. Taking images of an event, however is very different.
As a member of the Leeds Exposure group I had been invited to take a few images to form a record of the day. Images like this are to be looked at for many years as part of a new image archive created by the event organisers.
To me an image is a moment in time frozen forever and my moments showed – to me at least – a larger group of people reflected in my subjects’ faces and body language.
The way the girls on the burger van were so ready to explode into vivacious laughter, the understanding grin on the Dad’s face at his son’s slight apprehension at having his picture taken, the enthusiasm to demonstrate the healing properties of zero-point energy to all and sundry – and all the other little stories each image wants to tell you – convey to me the environment that let these people fully be themselves without fear or favour.
We take for granted the simple pleasure of just relaxing within a group of like-minded individuals on a lovely summer’s day in a beautiful part of a busy city.
It is such an essential part of the background against which we justify all the daily grind and chores we fill so much of our lives with that we undervalue it at our peril. If you’ve ever been to a badly run event with surly unpleasant types reflecting brooding undercurrents of resentment, crime and violence you’d soon realise what an amazing feat Kirkstall Festival is and how worthwhile an undertaking.
View Mark’s photos of Kirkstall festival | Visit the Kirkstall Festival group on Flickr
Image and text © Mark Jaffe, 2010. All rights reserved.
