ORIENTING THROUGH PHOTOS
Kailee Parsons
Dear Readers,
After four and a half years at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, studying English Literature and joining the PRISMA team as Photography Editor, my partner and I decided to move to Edinburgh. The first week of January, I stepped off the train with just a suitcase and walked for ten minutes to our new flat. He was waiting there with our cat, having travelled down early to set up gas and electricity, and I set out to deep clean our house for the last time.
I had visited Edinburgh many times as a tourist, having lived just 90 minutes away by train, but I knew the city would look different through the eyes of a local. Practically, I hoped I would gain a deeper understanding of its geography. I would no longer have to double check Maps to find my way around, and I would know where the best cafes were located and which alleyways to avoid. On a deeper level, however, I wanted to get to know Edinburgh like I knew St Andrews, or the town where I grew up. I wanted it to feel like home. To that end, I made it my mission on weekends to explore new neighbourhoods, and to orient myself within Edinburgh.
I started in my own neighbourhood, branching out, until I found myself exploring the other side of the city. I discovered that one of my favourite things about Edinburgh is that it is extremely walkable. As a bonus, I often brought my camera along to document what I saw. Although I love photography, and often use a camera for work (alongside my role at PRISMA, I work in digital marketing), the truth is that I hadn’t touched my personal camera in weeks, having precious little time and motivation around the festive period to set aside for purely creative purposes. However, with my weekends now free and most of Edinburgh yet to be explored, it seemed like the perfect time to reinvest in my photography.
As it turns out, exploring Edinburgh with a camera has infinite perks. Because I was keeping my eyes peeled for a good shot, I noticed beauty in my surroundings that I might have missed otherwise. I visited tourist attractions, hidden gems, regular neighbourhoods, and even looked for shots within my own flat. I jotted down places I wanted to revisit, at different times of the day, week, or year, to see how the image in my viewfinder changed.
A change of weather (always on the cards in Edinburgh where the weather changes several times per day) could make a shot look completely different. Additionally, I pushed myself to walk that little bit further, to venture into new neighbourhoods for the sake of discovering something beautiful there that I could photograph. Although exercise and fresh air are reasons enough to get out and about, the act of photography is the thing that often pushes me out the door. At the end of a long day of walking and getting lost, coming back home to upload and edit photos on my laptop feels like a joyful reward. I revisit all the places I have been, remembering the day and committing it to memory. While I try not to overdo the editing, I allow myself to be led by the memories and feelings of the day as I tweak things like exposure and tone.
My goal with a picture is always to make it communicate how it looked and felt in real life, in the moment. As I have written about before in PRISMA, one of my favourite things about photography is that it allows us to freeze a moment as we experienced it; another is that it allows us to see life from a new perspective. Whether you need to orient yourself within a new space or simply reimagine the scenery you see every day, I encourage you to get outside and bring your camera with you when you do.
This article first appeared in PRISMA, Issue 15.