Submission

This project is a snapshot, a day in the life. Simon lived in his workshop, a very skilled and sort after cabinet maker and joiner, self taught and specialising in veneering and curved work, his skills were sought by some of London’s elite. He once owned his own home, which he had lovingly, restored from an old disused school. Some bad choices and a global recession cost Simon dearly, a marriage his business and his beloved school. I wanted to explore the sense of lose, which we can often carry with us, like the old saying ‘if you love someone set them free’, what happens to the person who is left waiting for the love if it doesn’t return? What do we see when we look in? Is this a poor lonely man, or a contented man? How do we as people judge? For someone who appears to have nothing in a materialistic world Simon owns a vast amount in memories and experience, the way he lives is a choice not a hardship. But why does he choose to live this way, from the loss of a love and the loss of all the material things which went with it, Simon never felt he would be able to achieve again what he had lost, so he simple hasn’t bothered, he uses his existence as a stick, which to beat himself with, to remind him unfairly of his folly. His living space is a small sectioned off area at one end of the workshop, a bed made from crates, filing cabinet for clothes and bits and pieces, the kitchen space is also the washing space with a toilet off to the side, this is very Spartan living. It is a privilege to have had a view into this deeply interesting man. In his trade as well his life he is a highly respected individual, no sympathies or favour required. Even with these truths it is hard not to look in and see a sense of loss, a man who is unable to or will not allow himself to move on. What is he waiting for?