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Alan Eglinton, Yes, No, Maybe. Exhibition “L’Etreinte du tourbillon” curated by Anne Immelé

ATTRACTION(S), BPM 2018

Alan Eglinton - Poems

This week on Stay Routed, we talk to photographer Alan Eglinton about his project - Poems.

"I appreciate observing without a camera. You learn to look with a new set of rules and you have less shoulder ache. I just wish Japanese poets had added fourth line to their haiku. Sometimes it would make things much easier".

I’m no poet, nor have I had a sustainable interest in poetry, but I am a photographer if I can call it that. What Alan describes in his opening text is something I have always had some sort of relationship or experience with whilst I’ve been without my camera,

“I appreciate observing without a camera. You learn to look with a new set of rules”

This statement will have different results for everyone, everyone has their own practices and applications of photography, so the rules learnt are ultimately different. When I’m out, everything moves a lot faster, but when I lift my camera, there is silence and a sense of connection. For years I’ve been told to carry my camera everywhere I go and I mostly have. The silence is only temporary, but without any interference it is prolonged and through that the static is lifted.

At the heart of the abstract, cinematic and poetic verse’s Alan writes, is ‘haiku’, a 19th century traditional Japanese poetry style. Haiku is a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Most Haiku poems describe daily or mundane situations, giving the spectator a 3rd person observationally focal point to witness the activity of the Author. Each verse offers a level of curiosity, sparseness and perspective, something that is heavily reflected in Alan Eglinton’s body of work.

Poems is the result of pure observation and un-subjective interaction’s. His words allow us to glimpse into a world only known by him, the individuals he met and the observations he has made.

These small abstract verses on their own seem like instantaneous reactions to an event spoken only in the mind of the observer, stringing them together allows us to build up a fuller and cinematic conversation which feels incredibly personal, almost diary like. This put myself as the reader in a strangely distant observation, much like a fly on the wall.

We catch up with Alan Eglinton to talk about his project Poems.

YP - How did this project begin, what was involved in it’s development and was haiku something you had experimented with before?

AE - I started writing short verse poems in my project "Steps Of A Go-Between", a photo and text journal I made in 2005-2006. During that period, I discovered the work of Japanese haiku poet Taneda Santoka who I admire for his wry sense of humor.

During "Steps Of A Go-Between", the haiku were amongst other diary notes. I don't think I'd fully realized how photographic these short poems were, and that they could be a commentary on the act of taking photos. I like to rediscover some of my work a few years later. Things become more obvious and I see how one project can lead to another.

About a year or two after "Steps", I continued writing short poems. However, I didn't combine them with any photos I'd shot. I liked working without a camera. It became a bit like a game, taking pictures mentally and on paper rather than on film. There's a story I like about the French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, who apparently takes pictures with a camera with no film in it. I don't know if this is true or not.

YP - Working with a camera is a primary source of production for most photographic artist, do you see it as your primary tool or does camera follow text in your practice?

AE - Generally I think both go hand in hand in my practice. Sometimes photos call for text and sometimes they don't and vice-versa. However, at the moment, I'm not writing as much as before. I've just about finished editing "Poems" as a book and I've come back to shooting black and white photos with an analog 24x36 camera. For the moment, these black and white pictures are a work in progress called "Building Site". As you say, the camera is important in a photographer's practice but then again, history has shown us that there are other means of making photos apart from pressing the trigger. With "Poems", I was interested in working at the boundaries of photography. It gave me the space to humor photography. I probably also needed a break from the rush of photos.

YP - Supporting each verse of the conversation with an image allowed you to build up a second layer of visual references, where these images something you found at the location or something you made conscious decision to edit and include later?

AE - A bit of both. Sometimes the poems are written on the spot on a piece of paper I find on the pavement. Sometimes I write the poems on my mobile phone and they meet a piece of paper once I get home. All in all, I try to keep a sense of spontaneity in all of the text-picture associations, even if they're made at home. Spending too much time on making a piece would probably just weaken it. Plus, it's a good exercise to get things done quickly. People often wonder if there's a link between the texts and images in "Poems". For example, is there a link between "three-legged cat / trying to bury a turd" and Walker Evans' portrait? There's a gap between both. They come together instinctively. For me, they seem to fit together according to a logic that probably doesn't need explaining.

It's the first reaction to try and find a connection between the text and the image, decoding the image is engraved within photography. But from our conversation, it's clear that the text is the personal observation and reaction, the physical plane the text occupies is either linked to the location of the observation, or a document that ensues a reflection of the self or the location itself. The body of work as a whole is very reflective.

Earlier in our conversation, you spoke of the French actor - Jean-Louis Trintignant, who supposedly took images without any film in the camera - regardless of its truth; it’s a very poignant notion. Photography at its core is a very personal expression of its creator, and Jean Louise Trintigant practice is the ultimate express of that.

YP - The narrative as well as the process in which you created each piece, holds the same principle. Each individual piece comes across as an artefact your of own memory, influenced by the scene you witnessed. When you created each piece did you intend them to work together as part of a narrative?

AE - The poems were written on the spur of the moment, just like when I snap my black and white photos. I didn't have a clear narrative in mind. Each poem may exist separately and act as a narrative by itself.

YP - Before our conversation we spoke about the possibility of producing a book, how do you intend of capturing the cinematic and personal nature of the project with the confines of a book and what can we expect to see in the end result?

AE – The final book will be close to an A4 format. On each page, I wish to have quite a lot of negative space around each document. I like the contrast between the stark white background and the roughed up documents. I think a small intimate book would be too redundant regarding the personal character of the poems.

YP – After the completion of the book, would it be the conclusion to this narrative or is the project going to be continued?

AE - There isn't a real end to the book of "Poems". There will be a second volume in which the form of writing and the use of documents will evolve. I recently exhibited the poems of the first volume in the region of Brittany in France. It's important that the work exists both in its exhibited form and as a book. The next step is to show the work to a wider audience in England. Indeed, I'm still very attached to my native country. My series "England" is inspired by my origins, for example. I'm equally working on a photo and writing project on Afghanistan at the moment. This work engages with missing pictures and an alternative practice of photography, like in "Poems". I wish to move away from the personal content of my poems towards a more socially and historically involved subject.

Alan Eglinton is planning to release this on going project as a book, so Stay Routed for more information. Alan’s black and white series has also been published in the first volume of "Still Cursing", a publication by Show Me Pictures and 1623 Theatre Company - click here for more information.

Head over to Alan Eglinton’s website to see more work - www.alaneglinton.com

Stay Routed for more features as well as new work from the collective!

We will be launching our open call submission on May 7th!, so Stay Routed for more information and be ready to send your work!

Yiannis Pelekanis