Photo Theme...
Post Boxes
My "photo themes" are really fillers... there's no major body of work conceived, shot, edited nor presented... nor careful layout planned with every element just right. In truth these are random shots usually taken on the last few frames of a film after I've been doing some other work or assignment. I don't always shoot off a few frames - time and whatever wait for no man - but if I have three or four frames remaining on a colour film I'll leave it in the camera until I get home just in case I see a subject / object that I can quickly snap, in passing, and add it to my growing collections of themed subjects.
With a photo essay I'm trying to tell a story about somebody, something, somewhere or even when something happened... whereas themes are more generic. I photograph them because the separate elements are linked for whatever reason or another.
All themes appear obvious until I try collecting them... then they become rather elusive. Over the years I've taken and selected for themed collections many examples of stripes, Numbers, windows, doors, Car Number Plates, pub signs, arrow and finger pointers, Wall Textures... and more recently how French people hold their assorted loaves and sticks of bread. My favourite colour theme is "Red, White and Blue," although over here the colours are said the other way around as Bleu, Blanc et Rouge to tie in with the Tricolour national flag.
I don't include timed events, where the camera is in a fixed position for a long or short period, in my sequence categories because they are fixed beforehand with few variables, and once established don't provide any more hunting down... nor challenge. Nevertheless, I enjoy timed sequences such as the Time of Day (hours), Time of Year (seasons), Wash Time (seconds) and Time passes me by (minutes).
Themed photography can become a harmless obsession... and whilst I don't do it obsessively I do have more than 400 assorted bright red post boxes on file covering all the reigns they've been in use from Queen Victoria through to Queen Elizabeth. Some are rare and many others are disappearing... so it's an increasingly interesting pastime spotting different ones and photographing them in the right setting and in the best light.
Occasionally I'll find something unusual... post boxes sealed with hazard tape in times of national emergency, or a warning that industrial action has curtailed collections. I've also seen a hand-written note warning users not to post letters because there are nesting birds inside... which happens every spring at one roadside box near Machynlleth in west Wales. My favourite, though, was moving when first saw it... painted on the side of a railway T.P.O. (Travelling Post Office) on the Bluebell Line in southern England. It was certainly worth the chase and catching up with at the next station... it bore the legend, "Letters posted here must bear an extra halfpenny stamp." This example is thankfully preserved, but all other TPOs in the UK are now a thing of the past. It just goes to show... a theme can become an important record of the past as progress marches on.
11:20:22 PM 
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