Processing.

I’ve noticed a blindingly obvious pattern in my confidence, where my work is related, lately. I go do a shoot, I happen to feel fucking awesome about it, I go home, download, back up, back up again, back up again, then have a quick look through. If it’s not 3am, I might even do some quick edits. And if there’s anyone around, I’ll post a few here and there.

And then, I’ll hate everything I just did. I’ll the images, I’ll loathe my processing, and I’ll spend an awful lot of time wondering why the fuck I am trying to survive in this industry. Why I’m pretending to be a photographer. And I know I’m not the only person to go through those processes.

One thing I have noticed lately, is an awful lot of people telling me what I shouldn’t be doing while I’m going through my working process. Don’t pull that face looking at your images. You shouldn’t post your images anywhere for at least a week. Turn the computer off, leave them alone. Don’t look at them yet.

However, I often think it’s important that people remember these are my processes which make up a part if who I am. I remember constantly being told off for pulling different expressions when I was performing on my cello. So one time, I purposely kept the most dead pan face face you had ever seen, for an entire concert. Ironically, members of the audience AND the orchestra came up to me and asked what was wrong with me, did I not enjoy playing, and that my performance was a bit soulless.

Nice.

Thing is, being passionate, being expressive, being emotional is all a part of who I am. I’m not perfect. Jesus I’m so far from perfect, I may deserve a whole other (not so forgiving) category of my own. But it’s how I deal with stuff. It’s how I deal with life. It’s how I get through. I don’t bottle things up; I can’t. I can’t live my life, literally, trapped in a bottle.

I guess if I were to contain the negatives, then supposedly that would force out more positives, right?

Wrong.

Because there is the need for balance. No person in the world survives solely on being positive. There is always some negative, even just the tiniest bit. It might be minuscule, microcosmic, but it’s there.

And the same is said vice versa.

I like my balance. And as much as I will cry and whinge and fret and stress about shitty stuff, I will, just as much, sing and shout and laugh and squeal about awesome stuff. We are a world who focuses on negatives, I know not why. But I like to think I come in reasonably equal measure. Sure, when I’m happy I’m over the fucking moon, and when I’m down, it’s often rock bottom. Middle ground is hard for some people. For others it’s a natural way of life. I’m not perfect. And I won’t spend my life trying to be perfect for everyone else. Because that stops me from being me.

But  most importantly? I’m willing to bet I don’t function the same way as the majority of others. And that’s a bloody good thing. Because the world would be a desperately shit place if all our emotions were tied to the exact same levels, eh?

Hell no, it’s not time. Yet.

Last week, I picked up my cello for the first time in 14 months. I took it to a rehearsal I was assigned to photograph, though I left the cello in the car. It wasn’t a full rehearsal, it was just the strings, but the lovely conductor had invited me to play, if I wanted to.

So yeah, the cello sat in the car for a few hours.

I soon realised I wanted to take the cello out of the car, having photographed all I could under the circumstances, but I still wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to actually play it. So I spent maybe 15 minutes trying not to work myself into a frenzy, then took my cello out and sat down.

Of course they were all really welcoming; I couldn’t have asked for them to be lovelier about it.

But it felt weird. It didn’t feel wrong, but it didn’t exactly feel right.

I mean, I could still play, and all, but playing felt very detached, almost alien to me. There was little emotion in what I was playing (didn’t help that it was Mozart, who quite honestly, makes me want to ram my bow in my ear until it comes out the other side, and then move it back and forth desperately hoping to make my own music), and there was that immediate, weird sense of playing because I had to, rather than playing because I wanted to. It didn’t feel crap, but it didn’t feel good.

I think I was always one who never wanted to conform to the dots on the page.

I think this, because I do still want to get my cello out. I don’t want to play for anyone, I just want to play. I don’t know what, but that’s all there is to it. The danger there, though, is that I’ll get to the point where I’ll want someone to hear me play (lord only knows why), whether solo or orchestral. Perhaps because that’s all I know.

I’d love to get back into playing with a band, but so much of it was mundane, and the ONE band I adored playing with stopped performing shortly after I left.

I wondered if picking up my cello and playing again would be like slipping on a pair of jogging bottoms, you know, the favourite pair you’ve had for about 10 years, which you put back on as soon as they’re washed and dried, because they’re comfy; they’re your shape; they’re just right for you.

But it didn’t feel anything like that. Not at all. I’m not surprised, but I’m…I think I’m a little disappointed. I wanted to want to play. It wasn’t there. the spark is still dull.

I wonder if it will ever come back in full force?

Is it time?

It’s been over a year.

I watched these two videos (for the umpteenth time) last night, and wondered, again, if I was missing out.

Wondered, again, if I shouldn’t have stopped.

This weekend, I commence a new photography job.

It’s photographing a small orchestra.

It’s the orchestra I left, the last one, who kept pushing me on for that last year, making it bearable for me. Making it all hurt a little less. They said “bring your cello, it would be lovely if you played with us too.” I want to. I think.

I still hurt. I know.

Is it too soon? I don’t know.

I am the most confident person of all.

I have performed on stage, to thousands of people, on my cello. From solos to full symphony orchestras, all around the world.

I have given speeches and presentations to all manner of Important People, in the various jobs I worked to put myself through school/college/university.

I pole-danced and lap-danced for 2 years, holding my head high whilst raking in the (hard earned) cash.

I have tried hard to help people where ever possible, in areas where I know my stuff reasonably well, to help them grow and blossom.

I have put almost my entire life from the last 4 years, here in this blog, hiding only things which other people have asked me not to mention.

I have kept secrets for people, knowing for sure I would never let them slip, knowing how it would feel for myself.

I have done so much.

So. Much.

And yet, here I sit after doing what I thought was a fucking fantastic photo shoot, a styled shoot no less, something I’ve been wanting to do for so very long, and feeling like shit.

I have looked at my work, and gone, in a matter of a few hours, from “OMFG LOOK AT THIS ONE! IT’S AWESOME!” down that bastard slippery slope of self doubt and self criticism, through to “Er…are you really going to put that on facebook? Really?

It’s the weirdest, most masochistic form of self harm I have ever done.

I wouldn’t mind if I was doing it intentionally.

Instead, as I work through the images, trying really hard to fist bump myself with the feel-good factor, the fist-bumping turns into self stabbing, self harm, something which destroys a teeeeeeeny bit of me, every time. They say what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. I wonder, what about the things we think are making us stronger, but are in fact killing us?

I often think that, much as I adore my job, much as I love the chance to be so creative, I truly don’t think I’m designed or built to manage it. I don’t think I have the right structure to cope with all that comes with it. I still tell myself “Don’t be intimidated. Be INSPIRED.” Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out what to do when it’s all over and, the intimidation is lurking, the inspiration is waning and the self doubt is doing something far more obscene than just kicking my ass.

Weirdly, I wish I could take criticism. I know not everyone likes my work, of course they don’t. the world would be really fucking shit if we all liked the same thing. But how do you deal with this ridiculous impossible need to please everyone? How can I be so confident in all the things mentioned above, but not have the strength, courage and conviction to say “that’s fine if you don’t like it. Screw you, cos I like it”?

Do I like it?

Yes. I do. I did. I think I did. I think I do. I want to.

I want to remember that I did. I want to remember that I …do. And yet, as I go through the images of today’s photo shoot, I find myself wanting to bin them all because I genuinely think they’re all shit. The mighty wave of “I AM FULL OF AWESOME” is now but a tiny puddle of “Well…meh. Loser.”

I don’t want sympathy. I don’t want it. I just want to make this stop. I want to feel like I did something awesome, and genuinely feel and mean it. I don’t want to be an “average” photographer. I want to be an “AWESOME” photographer. But I want to get there without coming across like an arrogant cunt (which I do see a lot of, if I’m honest).

“Don’t be intimidated, be INSPIRED.”

And when it’s all over, and the dust has settled,

“Be inspired by CONFIDENCE.”

Fuck you, crappy confidence bullshit.

I’m dealing with an awful lot of mental health bullshit right now. My confidence is at an all time low, and I don’t know why. People are trying to support me left right and centre – but I can’t believe in them until I can believe in myself.

I don’t know how.

But if it means coming up with a silly little mantra to see at some point, every single day, to ingrain it into my system, then that’s what I’ll do.

I have to start somewhere.

I don’t want to break.

Again.

JMP Mantra © Mocha Beanie Mummy