Some general thoughts

I have recently taken started taking photographs of my surrounding area - there are different sets; some of the local common, some of the shops and restaurants at night and many just randomly out and about.  I may have to leave Wandsworth at some point although I have no plans to do so just yet. However, photographing the area I live in and love so much feels like a good way of preserving it for myself if ever I do pack up and move on to a less expensive area. 

When I look at some of the photographs, in fact when I look at many of what I have posted on Flickr these last two or three months I am constantly reminded of James Elkin's phrase in relation to Flickr (and other photo-sharing sites) 'kitschy and tedious images' and I think to myself -  this is what he is talking about.  I see exactly what he is saying and I would like to move away from that.  I have to say I do not particularly like many of the images I have taken despite the positive feedback on some of them - but I do like some.  

The photographs I have recently taken of the pond on Wandsworth Common are a mixed bunch.  I am drawn to the pond because in a story I wrote about two years ago there is a pond beyond a forest which in the story represents my deepest unconscious place, where a battle between a monster and the protagonist ensues, a place that is peaceful at times and then terrifying too. And I have been playing with these images I took on Wandsworth Common and trying to bring that imaginary space to the photographs.  Some of the images are a bit - I have referred to them - as "Disneyfied'.  Other's aren't.  But perhaps the Disney thing I refer to is no great surprise because the story is kind of fantasy, half fairy tale, weird hybrid of thing but I would like to steer away from the Disney aspect, and be truer to what's really going on, what's informing those images.  I haven't even looked at the narrative section in the course folder yet but I am wondering if this is the way to go - I guess it depends on what is required (not that that has prevented me from going in the direction I feel I need to go yet...)

Anyway, how to avoid the kitschy but still express the slightly gothic thing I'm thinking about is probably what I'm trying to say.  Perhaps I can't avoid the kitschy - perhaps that's just who/where/what I am!