Best Friends

Four Best Friends 1977 - Steven Kennard 2012
Four Best Friends 1977 – Steven Kennard 2012

Lily and Sharon walking their dogs together, Leiston, Suffolk, England, in the 70’s. Image links to my Black and White photography gallery.

This black and white photo, taken using film and developed in my darkroom was scanned and originally posted on Google+ in 2012. It has been rescued before the shut down, to be featured today on MeWe.

Nourishing Our Creativity

French Horn #2 - Steven Kennard 2011
French Horn #2 – Steven Kennard 2011

Creativity is fed and nourished by the things around us and our experiences. Some of those are visual, some are more visceral. For all of us our ability to create is fed by those things. Photography (making photographs) compels me to be observant of my surroundings and my environment in a broad sense and in a more focused sense in the details. I believe our brains have the capacity to record everything that we see and the subconscious memory of that is often visible in the things we subsequently create ourselves. This can be seen in forms, surface textures or colour, for example.

Composing images requires a careful balancing of elements – what is to be excluded, what included and how these elements are placed within the frame – to create the visual harmony along what, in photography is a two dimensional plane. Three dimensional works whether turned items, sculpture or even furniture all need to have the same consideration applied to achieve successful results. For me, the creating of images and the creating of three dimensional works are interrelated and connected and often this relationship can be seen in my work. Sometimes this connection is clear, at other times more subtle.

We need to keep feeding our brains and imaginations using the elements that are available to us wherever we might be.

Original Post November 21, 2011:

Symphony Nova Scotia had an annual fundraiser and asked Nova Scotia artists to create something using some of their old and unusable musical instruments. I got this wonderful French horn (which I still managed to play as you can see if you look closely at the photograph below) and made a series of photographs of it.

Imagine the music this instrument provided for so many people for years and the pleasure that it gave to those who played it.

French Horn #1 - Steven Kennard 2011
French Horn – Steven Kennard 2011

Corn Drier, Québec, 2013

Corn Dryer, Québec - Steven Kennard 2013
Corn Dryer, Québec – Steven Kennard 2013

I have been travelling for my work and so I am running behind on my postings for the project but I am hoping to catch up. Here is a photograph I took on my way through Québec. I spotted these corn drying structures that I have not seen since leaving France. I just love the low tech approach to the corn drying.