Behind The Book: Shinning A Spotlight On 17.
June 17, 2019
17 was not the book I wanted to write, but it was the book I was compelled to write.
Actually, I don't think so much that I wrote the book, rather the book came flooding out of me... beginning with a violent roar.
What I wanted was to produce a coffee table photography book and what I ended up with is a million miles away from what I had originally set out to do. But I'm pleased I went with the flow and let the book spill out... It seems 17 was the book I needed to write. For myself and for all the others, who are just like me, scattered far and wide, all going through this experience in silence and alone.
As I hadn't set out to write about grief and freedom, I didn't have a layout and I hadn't decided on the subjects surrounding grief that I would touch upon. But once the book started to take shape, I was amused by the other areas that popped up around grief - anger, envy, humour and guilt.
So in the end, I think 17 is (to put it in the ponciest way possible) a journey into and around the universe of grief because sometimes it does feel like you're being thrust into a place quite separate from where everyone else resides.
I could have finished the book, saved it to my hard drive and forget about it. But over the years I've discovered that creating is only one part of the art process, the other (which is equally important) is unleashing your art into the wild. Art has to be made and it has to be consumed and it must be experienced, by both the makers and others for it to be fully realised... and until a work of art, be it a book or a poem or a photograph or a painting or a musical piece or what have you have been through all of the aforementioned stages, well, it's just a work in progress.
I feel like I should start a new hashtag: #makeworksharework