My Life

On a fine winter's afternoon I held my 4x5 pinhole camera tightly to my chest and photographed the sun. I slowly turned from left to right and as I breathed in and out the sun's image traced a path across the film falling and rising with my chest.

My line is short. The sun's line is almost 10,000 times 10,000 times as long as mine, and after mine is ended the sun will continue for another 10,000 times 10,000 times as long. The sun has witnessed massive impacts almost obliterating the earth, ice ages come and go, life come and go.

We live on a dangerous planet in a dangerous universe. Our existence is perhaps only a brief accident in the evolution of the universe. I enormously appreciate the fact that I am conscious of my own existence, aware of this universe, and I recognise my complete insignificance - and the insignificance of our planet - in the vastness of time and space.



"What we do in life echoes in eternity" from the film 'Gladiator'



4x5 pinhole photograph on Ilford FP4+ printed as a gum print in Prussian Blue.

Text and images Copyright Geoff Chaplin 2002 -