Julian Germain

'I met Charles Albert Lucien Snelling on a Saturday in April, 1992. He lived in a typical two up two down terraced house amongst many other two up two down terraced houses… It was yellow and orange. In that respect it was totally different from every other house on the street…. ….Charlie was a simple, gentle, man. He loved flowers and the names of flowers. He loved colour and surrounded himself with colour. He loved his wife. Without ever trying or intending to, he showed me that the most important things in life cost nothing at all. He was my antidote to modern living.’ Julian Germain, from the book ‘For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness’, SteidlMack, 2005

When Julian Germain came as a guest lecturer to our college, this is the project that stuck in my mind the most out of all of the projects he mentioned. He met this man briefly in 1992 then continued to visit and photograph him for many years until, sadly, he passed away. I just think that this project is so lovely, I love the story behind it, how the man, 'Charlie', always looked on the bright side of life and just seemed to be a wonderful and interesting man. Germain mentioned that he talked a lot about his wife and his small, terraced, colourful house was full of pictures of her. I think that this story is heart warming and it really grabbed my attention.

From this lecture I have realised that projects that are carried out over a long period of time, i.e. many years, can be very interesting and can develop great stories behind them. This is an idea that I would love to try within my own personal work.