LONELYNESS and BEAUTY

A friend told me he had been a photographer since the age of 10.
Then he said he’d been lonely forever.
But for more than half his life he had been madly in love with the same woman.
He whispered, “When we’re together in the same country,
in the same city and in the same space
my loneliness, like an Ostrich,
hides itself, embarrassed that such loneliness
could exist in one so much in love.”

He thought, perhaps he became a documentary photographer,
because he had always felt others had a more real existence,
one that was essentially communal.

He had been on the outside of communities
with his nose against the window of life,
watching, studying, looking, asking ‘why’ this and ‘why’ that.

I told him, as far as I can see, he was not alone in his isolation.
I told him I had listened to and sometimes have taught young people from Bosnia, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine and England.
It is a profound pleasure but I have sensed their uncertainty,
their isolation while wishing to belong to something supportive
and their sadness at the state of the world they are being given.

I remembered this quote from Chief Joseph
of the surviving indigenous American Nez Perce Tribe
who said “we do not own the land, we inherit it for our children.”

After years of battles and broken US government promises
he and his people were forced to surrender to the US Calvery on October 5, 1877.
Chief Joseph then gave a message to the US soldiers,
which is known to be one of the greatest American speeches:
“...Hear me, my chiefs,
I am tired.
My heart is sick and sad.
From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever.”

I suggested that as my friend and I were born American,
loneliness is perhaps a consequence
arising from a culture and a land where 55 to 56 million indigenous Americans
were murdered,
where 12.5 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americans
to be enslaved,
where women were and still are denied the rights of the ‘white man’
and still today the LGBTQ community is under assault.

These histories offered few possibilities within the establishment
to join something embracing,
something morally engaging or acceptable.
We had been taught that Americans were the good guys and falsely,
that we were the victors of World War 2.
We recognised the depth of deception, racism and contempt
for so many only given light by the civil rights and Womens
and anti-Vietnam War movements.
That was the Sixties; that was when we grew up.

I believe so many young people today feel those things we felt:
that the establishment
only wants to increase their wealth by exploiting our knowledge, skills and labour;
only wants to stuff us with half-truths, which we need to expose;
only wants to ignore the damage to out habitat as long as they extract wealth from it;
and wants to destroy people and places as they profit from their war industries;
and the list goes on.

Is it any wonder so many of us feel alone in a culture which thrives on our isolation?We are lonely because they have created a society
that profoundly atomizes us, alienates us
and turns us into wage slaves.

I told my friend that for me, photography has the unique ability to point this out.
For me, it is a responsibility.
It is embracing caring, kindness, truth-telling,
and making meaning out of a chaotic world.

This is partly why I am making 12 x 26 minute films about photography.

From new subscribers:
”I subscribed to the course at “Curious” level and watched the first video of series 1, which I have to say is simply brilliant.”

“I am a photographer, filmmaker, writer! i share the way robert golden is looking at the human situation just now in the world! i saw his great and truthful film documentation! a phantastic work and so important right now!”

“Just watched your video… beautiful!!!!! Love your narration. Loved your personal story running through. Wonderful approach to talking about how you see, look, and search - with some of your cultural and artistic references blended in. Wonderful!!!”

SEE THE PROMO HERE