Don’t Take This Personally

The 1st September is traditionally known as the 1st day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
The spring of 2008 swept in with a tide of catastrophic proportions, accompanied by a wave of storms that is said to be the worst in the Western Cape region, for over 20 years.

The response to this series has been somewhat overwhelming. Perhaps more overwhelming has been the experience itself.

In amongst all of the most wonderful comments there was one that said, “Lucky shot”
At first this comment put me on the defensive. After all, I felt that my own journey as a photographer had also equipped me to take these pictures on the day.
But it did get me thinking. Yes, in fact that comment is correct.
I count myself very lucky to have witnessed such an epic event.
Within the last few weeks, I have journeyed back in my mind and through these images to those moments.
To think that I had to phone a friend for a lift to get me to the location, because my car had broken down on route.
Everything about the day seemed so surreal. It was like taking pictures for a larger than life movie, but you were also in it.
Of course all the stunts were your own too.

I think more importantly though is the subject of our relationship as human beings with the changing environment around us. In those moments that we stick our heads out of the maize of mediocrity, it would be agreed that the world around us is changing.
Climates are becoming more unpredictable, storms of this nature are becoming more prolific and increasing in size.
Ultimately it will be us against nature. All the trivial politics and dogma in-between, I believe, mean absolutely nothing in the end.

So let’s think about the size of that wave looking down on us the next time we buy that mass produced product of little or no use, or sip coffee out of a polystyrene cup or blindly upgrade from that old cell phone, because it’s no longer cool.
We are all consumed by our own systems.

Have we stopped to consider whats coming over that wall ?