A Greek Epiphany
Last month, I was blessed to head to Crete. Primarily, this was a trip to celebrate my partner’s 30th birthday. However, I chose to use it as a sort of soul-searching retreat to work out what I really wanted to do, not only creatively but also financially, with my life.
I made sure to continue to shoot film out there, along with recording a YouTube video, if nothing else, just to have images and motion to remember the trip for a long time to come. This is something I have been doing in recent years, as I love to document and print physical photos of trips so that, as my memory fades of them, I can be reminded of better times. This time, however, I decided to shoot some colour film for fun. Something I hadn’t done in many years due to the costs, but this time, they were all worth it.
Crete is a weird place; the airport felt like something out of the third world. You can’t flush toilet paper due to an ancient pipe system that isn’t big enough to accommodate the 21st-century-sized shits we all do. Combine the open bins of fresh shit paper with what can only be described as a greenhouse effect within the luggage pick-up room, and the smell alone was an interesting start to the trip. Herds of people forcing their way through passport control, to get to a broken urinal and a water bottle filled with soap next to taps, I’m pretty certain didn’t work.
Still, we were through and now to go and get a taxi, which we were certain would cost us more than the resort we had booked. €75 later and PTSD from the crazy driving standard on the Greek A roads. White lines usually mean things on roads, to denote lanes or passing places, etc. However, in Greece, I believe they are purely there for aesthetic reasons. Our taxi driver suggested we do lots and lots of things, but I think he had underestimated the British ability to lie down in the sun and read a book.
The hotel was odd, but given the first 2 hours we had spent in Greece, we would have expected nothing less. A Bond villain-esque gate and private road revealed our own personal piece of all-inclusive, Brit abroad, bad sun tan heaven. The days were spent sipping mocktails, smoking 20 Marlborough Golds down to the filter and thinking. The thinking was almost certainly the most dangerous part of that routine.
I mostly sat and thought about what I was going to do when I got back to Blighty. Did I want to keep trying to make money as a photographer? Why am I even bothering? There are so many creatives out there, and I would say almost all of them are better than me at working with brands. After a couple of days, I was pretty sure I wanted to leave freelance photography behind and produce work for only me. This isn’t to say I’ll never do a portrait session again or should sell all my equipment to buy a Leica that won’t do half of the things I need it to. It was more to stop trying with the business side of the industry. Amazing what 3 days in the Mediterranean sun and sea can do. A decision I had wrestled with for months was solved in 72 hours and a very well-timed email.
The email came from a company I had worked for in the past, which, in reality, was the reason I got into the camera industry. Park Cameras were the reason I moved down to Brighton. I worked in the shop for around 3 years till I was scouted by MPB to go and work for them. Sadly, the offer of more money and the lie of a nice working environment dragged me from Park. But now the email asking me to interview for Park at the same time I decided to go back to full-time work felt like the skies had parted and a path had been shown.
So after a wonderful time shooting colour film in the gorgeous sunshine and having possibly the best holiday I have ever had, I left Greece no longer a freelance photographer but now a photographer working in the camera industry, shooting for himself and himself only. Colour images are below, along with a couple of black and whites, because why change the habit of a lifetime?
