A holiday through the lens is not really a break (for them, or me).
The camera is a barrier, it keeps you at a distance from actually sharing
events and moments. This aspect of photography challenges me. The photographer is the viewer and
not the participant, it's not a 'real', 'lived' experience, it's framed and isolated, tending towards voyeuristic. The late (great) French
ethnographer Jean Rouch might disagree with my view, he spoke of the 'cine-trance' as a type of participation, a way to photograph/document and experience the cultural here and now, but
I don't see it that way.
This year I took my camera out once, for 20
minutes, in 5 weeks. 20 minutes of photographing my children on the beach. The rest I of time I hung out, chatted, drew pictures, rode my bike, made sandcastles and ate sushi and cake. It was
great, perhaps the best holiday I've had of late, a real experience.
Now back to work.