April 16, 2003
The Destination Is The Journey.
Not so long ago, I found myself walking up Charing Cross Rd on the way to a meeting. I passed Zwemmers book shop and glanced at the window - as I always do - and there, nestled among a host of famous names, I noticed a new photographic tome whose title stopped me dead in my tracks. The familiarity of its simple message leapt off the page with the glowing luminosity of a huge neon sign, the type you see outside that remote Holiday Inn as you drive across the Nevada desert in the dead of night :
The Destination Is The Journey.
Was this beckoning beacon written by someone who knew! or by some curious twist of fate, had they actually thought the name up? or had it been placed there in that shop window by the inhabitants of a passing UFO. Strange as it may seem, I had never seen something I’d felt so strongly put into words before, but there it was right before my very eyes transporting me back in time, re-affirming something I was just beginning to appreciate some thirty years ago.
It was sometime in the early seventies when I first began to realise the notion that my life was being taken on a wild roller coaster ride, driven by some powerful yet unseen guiding force. I had no idea in which direction I was heading but it didn’t seem to matter, all I knew was, that I had to believe in myself and do what I really wanted to do, live a dream, and allow destiny to take me on a journey along a road that became suprisingly, wider than long.
At that time I was spending most days and nights of the week driving an old VW van around the U.K and across Europe buying and selling chic vintage clothes and objects, to a select contingent of like minded people who shared my passion for style.
Meeting and exchanging creative thoughts with these fellow travellers - although few and widespread - was a real turn on, and as each new door opened I ventured deeper into a hidden world of alternative culture that fuelled my hungry imagination. These journeys confirmed my belief that certain people I was meeting along the way were the real innovators and creators of the time and part of an important future society, all be it an alternative to the norm.
The diverse visual world that I was being exposed to unfolded like a movie before my eyes, and I had become the camera collecting and storing information not really knowing how I would ever use it , but just knowing it had to be collected for a good purpose.