Positives and Negatives

Every so often I have a crisis of confidence about taking pictures and writing stuff. About my reasons for blipping, I suppose.

When I started blipping I wanted to use this journal not only to record my life and the things that are important to me but to improve my photography. I took pictures of all kinds of stuff and I had much more time than I do now to write journal entries and communicate with other blippers. Over time, I've discovered a passion for portraiture - and it remains an ongoing love-affair. But it's left me without much confidence when it comes to taking/blipping pictures of anything other than people. And lately I've been worrying about that a bit...

I've also got much less time for writing about my life and the things that matter to me or for commenting on your journals - although I continue to visit daily. All of which bothers me too! Perhaps I should just carry on as I am and not overthink it.

Yesterday, I was definitely overthinking it and felt so 'stuck' that I couldn't manage to take any photos at all, even when some good opportunities arose... Spokes and I went to the new Liverpool Small Cinema (http://liverpoolsmallcinema.org.uk) - a wonderful community initiative - to see a screening of 'Dear White People' by Justin Simien (www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/25/justin-simien-im-black-im-a-man-im-gay-but-im-more-than-all-of-those-things) It's a really good film about a group of Black students at an American Ivy League university. Satirical, funny, upsetting and thought-provoking - it was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival in the USA but has had trouble finding distribution in the UK for some bizarre reason (surely not racism?!) despite being hugely relevant - to white people, black people and any minority, or minoritised, group that's ever gone through internal struggles about how best to 'present' itself and whether to work with, or in opposition to, the majority culture. I recommend the film highly although university life in the USA with all those frat parties and suchlike remains a complete mystery to me!