I have to say this is, basically, a re-hash of a post from my Red Frame Journey blog at blogspot.com. My reason for re-writing it here is to say that am due to start my new project in the next week or so. It bears the same name as my primary blog;

'The Red Frame Journey'.

Red Frame is a people and places project I was supposed to start end of April 2008 however, I had a bit of a disaster or two recently, which I wrote about in an earlier post, and things got delayed.

However, the insurance company have at last arranged for the transport company to arrive in the next few days to take my old camper away for some TLC and then I will be free to get on.

The project has changed some what. It's original concept was a walk through the Dordogne Valley in SW France with a small, red, wooden, picture frame and a camera to photograph people and places. I now have to go to the UK for few weeks so the project will include the Romney Marsh in SE England.

To be honest, this is even better.

France and England are historic enemies (More like the neighbours from hell to each other) and there is centuries of wars, invasions and counter invasions between the two nations as well as periods of absolute detente, and alliance.

As far as I can make out, (having lived in both countries) the two absolute diverse cultures do actually have quite a bit in common, so one of the things I’d love to do is find some tangible evidence of this.

As I progress, the people and places I encounter will be pictured and, in the case of people, I will invite them to write a single sentence in my journal that best describes them as a person. The sentence they write for me I'll add to the photograph.

I don’t want them to write what they are, I want them to write who they are and there is a very distinct difference.

Someone telling you they are a Doctor allows you to make a multitude of assumptions about them but in reality, it tells you nothing about the person except their job. Where as, if I told you, "My name is Terry, I really don't give a toss". It would tell you an aspect of me the person and of course allow you to make a multitude of assumptions but, they would be a little more informed assumptions. It is an aspect of the people we encounter that I want to capture

People, humans, our species, we are fascinating are we not? No two people are the same yet we instinctively categorize people. Good People; Bad People. Happy People; Sad People. Winners; Losers.

In real terms we can't truly categorize people at all, everyone is an individual, we are born with traits of our parents and we learn much from them. As we grow, our education into life is gleaned from our experiences, second by second; hour by hour; day by day; we see, we feel, we experience, we learn, from the cradle to the grave we change as we learn and each of us is shaped into an individual person.

We tend to categorize ourselves too, if you asked me who I am, the main tag would be artist and photographer. My job, not who I am. So I want to know who people are but only in a sentence. I want to know who you are too, tell me in a sentence, maybe you will send me a picture of you, maybe I will put you in the book I publish.

Should you want to see the images I create, some will appear in this blog, some will also appear on my flickr and livespace sites. All of them will start to appear on my website soon (providing no more little horror shows are going to rattle my shutters in the dead of night trying to get in) and the following link will take you to the red frame part of my site http://www.terryodonnellphotographs.com/red-frame.html. You will be welcome, and I encourage you, to add your comments, thoughts opinions. Most important though, tell me about you in a sentence.