The Shot I Never Forgot
‘The Shot I Never Forgot’ is an Arts Council funded project in which participating artists were invited to share a photograph that has remained in their mind since they shot it along with the story behind its creation. Most of the artists instinctively knew which image they should share, sometimes because it was poignant, sometimes because of its personal significance or simply because it is a great photograph.
As photographers, we shoot many more images than ever see the light of day, often including fabulous stand alone pictures – shot on instinct – whilst making work for another project. Because these single images do not fit the brief, they sit gathering dust in an ever-growing archive. The Shot I Never Forgot is a chance for some of these images to be presented in their own right, for others to enjoy; a platform to enable some of these memorable photographs to be seen for the first time.
This project began in February 2013 and culminated in an exhibition and publication, held during the Brighton photo Fringe 2014. Since then, it has been lying dormant, ocassionally being dusted off to receive some new submissions!
John House, February 2018
Olivia Poppy Coles
‘ New Orleans 2013’ 'On a wall in Joshua Mann Pailet’s ‘ A Gallery For Fine Photography’ in New Orleans, hung the Edward S. Curtis photograph ‘Before the white man came’, edition 291 for $4,500. It was a photograph taken in North America in 1924 and features a Native American woman, wrapped in skins from her waist down, her hands balancing a bowl on her head. Her back is to the camera and before her lies a winding riverbed with palm trees hanging overhead. It has always fascinated me as a photograph; it seems to embody Curtis’ romantic admiration for the past. To the point where he has almost forgotten his presence within it, so intent he was on its subject’s preservation. I gazed at it longingly for another moment before heading back out into the 40-degree heat that was New Orleans in July. Later that day we took the tram up to the City Park, hoping to get some relief from the heat but instead running from shadow to shadow of the large palms and deep south oaks hung with spanish moss. Suddenly finding myself alone, I rounded a bend by a lake and came out onto a grey stone bridge that overlooked the water. As I turned, I gasped at what lay before me. There to the left of the bridge was Curtis’ scene. The water twisted round into the distance and palms, hung heavy, lined the banks. There even lay a small grassy patch to the right that stuck out slightly from the bank, where the lady in the picture stood. At that moment the others came around the corner and I grabbed one, standing her on the grassy spot and pulling out my camera. I moved around for a moment and found the shot. A moment from another time and another place, on a mid summer’s day in Louisiana."
