My way of working is often erratic and spontaneous. I rarely see images as part of a series, and can shoot anything from a piece of orange peel, a shaggy street cat or a stranger’s nose in a shop window reflection within a few short moments of each other.

In the early days of social media (I used Flickr and Tumblr) I remember being struck by the strange allure of seeing a grid of images lined up, all on one page. Each pixel-filled square is autonomous yet, at the same time, a narrative is still present.

It seemed to me that within the confinement of this space, a lot could happen. The broader the scope, somehow the richer the imagery appears.

With this, my hard drive becomes a vital tool and searching through an ever-growing arsenal of images is a perpetual process - one where I continue to hop from place to place.

Working spontaneously, with only perhaps a vague idea of what I hope to create, means that I’m more receptive to possibilities. Images can suddenly become imbued with meaning, and variables such as chance and what I call 'a certain trained laziness' (permanently having a bank of unclosed files in photoshop) can come into play.

It’s a tempting question to ask, but the meaning of what ‘lies behind’ an image does not interest me at all. I have felt for some time that my role is to just be a vehicle to whatever transpires. I adopt this approach also with my painting, which feels even more physical - a channeling of some unknown force, or sometimes a simple desire to be understood without words.

Voice-text-photo : Lydia Roberts

https://www.lydia-roberts.com/

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