‘For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness’

A series of photographs made over 8 years of the quiet existence of Charles Snelling, an elderly man living alone in a small house in Portsmouth, shown alongside pages from Snelling’s own albums. Charles Albert Lucian Snelling (Charlie) spent the last years of his life absorbed in his memories of his wife, his children, his love for flowers, music and the daily pleasures of the crossword, and his albums of his own photographs. Germain’s photographs of Charlie, his home and the things he owned are a beautiful, gentle portrait of a gentleman in his twilight years.

I love his work as the photographs are so bright and colourful, even though the context is quite upsetting, the photographs represent a more positive light. My favourite photograph is the picture below because I love the colour popping in it, his old fashioned car is so cute and I love the colour. Also the expression in his face makes me smile as it portrays a positive vibe. I love the idea of how the book has memory’s from their marriage from his personal photo album, it gives it a special touch and makes it more personal to Charles which is really sweet. He has inspired me to put my own family memory’s from our personal album into my final book as it will make it more personal to me and give it that extra touch that will make it more family orientated. Also, the use of colour popping has really interested me as I would like to have a contrast of old black and white photographs and then  bright colourful pictures in my final piece.