ROBYN DALY
Interview by Derek Henderson
October 2019
Where was the image of the woman in the green cardigan taken?
This was in Seidlce, Poland. It’s a small town one hour by train East of Warsaw. My husbands extended family lives there and we went to stay for a few days in 2016. I was following this woman down the street and as she passed the block of flats, all the colours clashed and looked amazing. I never saw her face. An interesting thing about Seidlce is that the prison is right in the town centre, and the prisoners can watch you from their windows. On a side note, this picture is on the cover of the new EXEK record which just came out which you can see here.
Is your life conflicted?
To some extent, it is, yes! Aren’t we all conflicted about our life choices at some point? Where we currently are is a delicate accumulation of actions and reactions; experiences and circumstances. I often think about what it would be like if one action was exchanged for another, where and who would we be then? The idea of an alternative universe is always thrilling. I think about these subsequent realities a fair bit. It’s not to do with being dissatisfied in life, more on the contrary, its curiosity imagination and gratefulness. It’s a simple awareness of the multiple paths our linear time on earth could be spent. I'm fortunate to be very happy in my life for the most part, and wouldn't wish for anything to be different right now.
Why do you like taking pictures of people unaware?
Probably because I like people watching. I mean if people are unaware of the camera they are less self-conscious and self-controlled and censored, it’s much more interesting to observe this way. Actually, I really dislike photographing people when they know there being watched, it's uncomfortable! I’ve always loved street photography from 30, 40, 50 years ago, back when people weren’t used to being photographed constantly. Candid photos are the kind I like looking at, particularly when they are from a different era, so I guess I've been drawn to create that same evocative feeling I get from old pictures. For me they’re like stills from a movie, except the actors are real and their lives are more intricate and complicated.
Your pictures seem fleeting and have a dream-like quality to them, would you agree?
Thank you, that’s a great compliment. I’m glad that they are seen in a pseudo-realistic light. Borderline reality is intriguing to me, so is transience and change. Maybe they're dreamlike because of the lack of clearly defined features or recognisable faces. The removing/blurring of individual identity creates room for imagination and an element of fantasy. Many of my people photos are caught in action; people going about their daily lives, working, running errands, passing their time. All sunlight passes eventually. These moments are forever fleeting and will never occur in the same way again.
Would it be true to say there isn’t a narrative in your work?
It depends on the work but I don’t shoot with an explicit narrative or agenda in mind, so I guess that's true in some ways. I could post-rationalize and talk about social commentary etc, but I think the truth is the images either stand-alone or are part of a larger, overarching theme with importance on the unknown. I'm just photographing things as I see them. Things that catch my eye or I can't walk past and ignore. In that way, it's a very personal narrative. If there was a story I wanted to portray, it’d be pretty open to interpretation.
Do you think you are curious by nature?
For sure. I've always been inquisitive and I think being drawn to photography makes sense. It allows you to record things and look at them later, especially handy if you're a relatively shy person out and about. It also gives you an excuse to get up close to things and explore ways of looking and interpreting visual cues. I've been mostly interested in other peoples worlds, whether fictionalised or observed, and only now I'm becoming more curious about myself in a way. I'm certainly not a writer or musician or painter so my natural instinct is to photograph to understand/express my internal dialogue. Just recently I've started to turn the camera on myself and as cringe as it sounds, try to uncover what I'm about — metaphorically and physically. I've found it to be a great way of slowing down and focusing on the present time at least. It's been a very new experience but a curious and fun process that I've just begun so I'll be keeping that in the background of my work for now.
See more of Robyn’s work at www.robyn-daly.com