The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings

I met Albert Hastings in 2001 when we lived in the same neighborhood in southern Wales. Not long after our first meeting I asked Bert if he would work with me on a photographic project and soon I began to learn more about aspects of his life, including his experience living through WWII in Britain, his work as a general engineer, and his relationship to the flora and fauna outside his building. As we became better acquainted I noticed, too, the way he organized his things and his time, and I found his approaches thoughtful. Early in this project Bert shared some intriguing thoughts with me concerning my photographs of him. These comments led me to think more about the ways our ideas regarding photography differed. To better understand his feelings about being photographed and his reactions to my photographs, I asked Bert to caption small prints I kept in a pocket-sized notebook. Each speaking from our own perspective, we began the dialog that eventually became this work. Bert’s captions create a new context for my photographs, while some correspond to the thinking that shaped the image, others interpret the image in a different way, thereby adding a critical second perspective to this work. This work is sited where Bert’s autobiographical vision, based in life experience and feeling, meets the new eye of a stranger. Together our visions and versions of his day-to-day experience sit side by side to create a new tale. The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings features 83 photographs by KayLynn Deveney, 77 handwritten captions by Albert Hastings and an assortment of Bert's poems, drawings and family photographs.