Moving to the UK to pursue my Maters in Photography meant that moving to a place with no Family and Friends in an unknown environment. It seems pretty scary to take such a big step. The fear of the Unknown doesn’t scare me it fuels my thirst for adventure to explore this new place. Back home when I and my friends used to go for hikes and explore unknown terrain I had somebody to share this experience with but now its just me and my camera.
Over course of 2 months I have explored and learned about the history about the places I have visited. From back roads to abandoned houses it always had me wondering what this place would look like back in its glory days and why it sits in ruins. The back roads that looks like a place where you can get mugged well I was greeted with friendly people and their pet out on a walk. Every place that I went there was always some human being around greeting me with a smile and in one instance I met a photographer and we chatted for quite some time, I realised I was never truly alone.
Although I had these experiences I was just a lone explorer, walking to these locations I found my self alone with my thoughts. The anxiety of whether I made the correct choice of moving here and other issues in mind made me feel small, it was in times like these I felt alone. All of this goes away when your in the flow of creating and the people you meet really helps you shut the voices in your head.
There is a lot of abandoned stuff around Middlesbrough and some of them are filled with history. There have been times where I have hiked to a location only to find it too risky to explore and then turned by going empty handed. Most of these places are outside town and visiting these places gives me a break from all work, these are the places I can be alone with my thoughts and these are also the places where I come up with ideas.
As I mentioned earlier there are some people at these places and I am not truly Alone but there is this one place where there is not a single human around, the best part is that its on a slight hill and from the top you can almost see the whole town. This place was once a lively neighbourhood the place has been demolished except one clock building that stands there. And as I stood there looking into town seeing people going about their business I realised I was truly Alone in Middlesbrough at this moment.
Hi, my name is Gaylon Gomes. I’m a First year student in MA Photography. I have 1 year of experience of doing freelance photography.
