Benedict Brain is a UK-based photographer, journalist and artist. He is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and sits on the society’s Distinctions Advisory Panel. He is also a past editor of Digital Camera Magazine, and the author of You Will be Able to Take Great Photos by The End of This Book.
Hope. It was everything I had hoped for! Recently, I was speaking at the Canadian Association of Photographic Arts in Kelowna, Canada. Due to a slight mixup with my itinerary and having to include a ‘Saturday’ in my schedule to keep flight costs down, I had an unexpected 36 hours to get from Kelowna to Vancouver International Airport. I had a rental car, so I scoured the map, delighting at the prospect of a drive through the Rocky Mountains. While I’m sure there were plenty of dramatic ‘classic’ landscape opportunities, they don’t inspire me photographically.
However, the map soon revealed a small town called Hope. Situated at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers in British Columbia, Hope has a population of less than 7,000. The icing on the cake was the thrilling discovery that the 1982 Sylvester Stallone film Rambo: First Blood was filmed there so the potential for kitsch was high. So I booked into the Red Roof Motel, seduced mainly by a photo of a water feature in the parking lot.
I have many long-term projects on the go, some of which go on and on and on. So, I was drawn to the idea of making a quick-fire project that had to be resolved in less than 24 hours. I decided to make a small 32-page zine about the town. I challenged myself to shoot it, edit it, process the images and sequence them in a crude zine before returning to London. I was on course to make it, although a flat tyre and its associated drama, along with the looming deadline for this column, had put me on the back foot. (As I write this, I’m nursing a coffee at the airport, but I still have a nine-hour flight, so I reckon I can do it). In the meantime, I think the half-dozen images seen here will feature. What a fabulous place Hope is!
Whether or not I eventually manage to complete and print the zine, the entire process has been a deeply rewarding creative journey. I wholeheartedly recommend embarking on a quick-fire 24-hour project. It doesn’t have to be as exotic as a small town in the Rockies; in fact, something closer to home might even be better. The key is to challenge yourself and see where your creativity takes you. Give it a try and you might be surprised.
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