Raheny Eye, One daze at a time...

As we celebrate seventeen years of Blipfoto this month, we are delighted to profile one of our longest serving members of the community, Raheny Eye.

His fantastic documentary style of photography, razor sharp wit and cynicism makes for a journal that should not be missed.

But who is the man behind the camera?

Grab a cup of tea and settle down to read this truly fascinating profile.
Raheny Eye, it’s over to you. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us!

BACKGROUND

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
There isn’t much to be said that isn’t already in the blip journal, implicitly or explicitly. It is almost impossible to be secretive while posting a photograph a day every day for over a decade. That said, as editor-in-chief of the story of our lives, we get to choose the way we want to remember the day just gone. As autobiographers, I have a feeling that we tend to be rather forgiving with our shortcomings when it comes to what we release into the public domain. I have posted relatively few of the truly crap moments. Strange, for someone who has thrived on scatological humour... 
I have a very pragmatic approach to life. I believe that we get one shot at it and that it is no Hollywood movie. There won’t necessarily be a happy ending (endings usually aren’t...) Instead I try and collect all the little beads of micro-happiness that are there in everyday life, if you take time to see them and appreciate them. My blip journal helps me to collect and remember these moments. My father died at the age of 44, when I was 21. It has taught me to make the most of life, at all times. 
 
What do you enjoy about the concept of Blipfoto?
One photo a day, taken on that day. Genius! Joe Tree (founder of the original Blipfoto), fair play to you, that was one hell of a surprisingly simple yet powerful concept. It is so easy to overshare on social media.
Blipfoto teaches people to be selective. The fact that only one photo can be posted for a given day implies some sort of an editorial choice on the part of the blipper, a reflection on what made that particular image the one that would be remembered as most representative of the day. 

Blipfoto is also a most unusual protected little corner of the World Wide Web in the sense that it is a genuinely nice and caring community. When all too often social media means factions of hateful people having a go at each other, Blipfoto is about nurturing respectful and caring interactions. The guiding principle of being excellent to each other (“if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it!”) has lasted the test of time and it helps to make Blipfoto special. 

Finally I love the fact that it is community-owned and not for profit. We are all indebted to Joe Tree for having created the concept and grown the site organically at first. I grew increasingly uneasy when the site became heavily publicised and artificially pushed for accelerated expansion.  I very much like the idea of organic growth and sustainability. Blipfoto in its present form is quite unusual and a tribute to its volunteers and community. I am very happy to contribute to the survival of the site by paying my full member’s subscription each year. When I look at how much my journal is worth to me and my family, it’s a no brainer! 

How would you describe your journal?
It is first and foremost a family archive. A cheeky look at what our lives were about in the second (and now third) decade of the 21st century. I did not fully realise it when I started blipping. The temptation was there at the beginning to try and post photos that would be best described as crowd pleasers. Like with any other social media, there is this thirst for validation, the hunt for the Likes or Thumbs Up or Stars or Views or Shares or Hearts or whatever token of appreciation or acknowledgement is used. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to belittle the stars/hearts system. It is such a kick when you get a reaction. And Blipfoto is a nice, caring place and reactions invariably mean positive reactions. But after a while I realised that the hearts and stars where not a goal in themselves. Once I started using the platform genuinely as a journal rather than a photography showcase (Flickr is better suited to this) I often opted to post photographs that may not have been as aesthetically pleasing or technically polished but that had a stronger meaning for me in terms of what I wanted to remember of that day. I love living in Dublin. I love the place and its people. Behind the jokes, and the sarcasm, and the cynicism at times, there is a great love for my city of adoption, for my country of adoption (I was born and raised in France). 

Do you have a photographic style?
Not a conscious one. Not at first. I have not read about the theory of photography. But when you take photographs every day, day in, day out, you will slowly, unconsciously develop your own style, which is a good thing I think.

There are a few general comments I can make about the photographs that I take:
I am fast. I have to be. Most of the time, the scene that I saw, or anticipated, will last no longer than a fraction of a second. I love to take photographs of people in their natural habitat, un-posed, unaware. But people have an annoying tendency to not stand still. Or not for long. That’s why I always have a camera with me, at the ready. There is no time for fiddling with settings. Depending on the day (in Ireland it varies between overcast, drizzly or bucketing down), I preset the ISO. For the rest, I mostly leave it up to the camera, as long as I can get a shutter speed of at least 1/100 second (preferably). But I do not let technical considerations get in the way of (what I think is) a good image. A slight blur or high ISO noise has never bothered me, if it meant that it was the fastest and often only way to capture a moment. 

The background is almost as important as your main character(s). I mostly take photographs of people but I am always aware of the surroundings and always try to take them into consideration when framing the shot. Very often the subjects that I shoot are not bang in the middle of the image, but part of a bigger stage. 

A camera is just a tool. The best one is the one that you know intimately. The one that will require the least amount of fiddling to produce the shot that you see in your mind’s eye. My old Canon 50D does just that. And I am getting to know the little Sony RX100 I always keep in a pocket. I don’t feel a compulsion to upgrade every couple of years. It actually takes a couple of years to be fully in tune with a camera, why change when you finally know how to use it? 

How important is the journaling side to you?
It is absolutely essential. The words are always as important to me as the image. I love Blipfoto as a daily writing exercise. A time to reflect on the day just gone. Those words, and keywords, enable me to find most entries that I am looking for, over a span of more than 13 years. The search feature of Blipfoto is the one that I use the most. For example, we’d be reminiscing at dinner time about some of the most embarrassing moments in parenting (there are no shortages of these...)
One of the family’s favourite is the time Luca puked by the ice cream machine in Jimmy Chung (that upmarket Chinese restaurant) and we had to cut short our stay (preventing Mimi from making her own ice cream, which is still a sore point to this day). While reminiscing, it is easy to grab the phone and type #puke @raheny_eye in the search box in Blipfoto, and there it is! I always use keywords in my entries. The first few are the real ones, the ones I’ll need to get back to the entry if needed, and I usually add a few more daft ones for the craic, for the subtext of what made the day. 

Do you use your journal to keep in touch with people?
Absolutely. Blipfoto is my favourite platform for keeping in touch with friends, a lot of whom I have met... on Blipfoto (you know who you are!) I have always found that meeting a blip friend in real life is a surprisingly natural and easy-going process. Provided it is someone whose journal you have followed for a good while. I am glad that my old friend Ottawacker has started blipping regularly in the last two years. We’ve known each other since 1989 but for a good while the only news that we’d exchange would be via a Christmas card (the exchange being him writing and posting it and me reading it and sending a half-arsed semi-apologetic email two months later approximately around his birthday). Now I can see Ottawacker Jr grow into a fine young lad and his dad transitioning nicely from an irritable middle-aged git into a cranky old bollix. My colleague WuggyBear is the latest recruit to the blip family. He was telling me recently how nice the community is. I can see his Golden Retrievers grow up and I can do some overtime by slagging him outside of business hours. The one thing that the two have in common is a deadly profile picture, in elegant black and white, just sayin’. 

I have friends and family in France who follow my journal regularly (I sometimes laugh at the thought of what Google Translate might dish out to them...) and for years I have tried to recruit Nana into the blipfold. But she is categorical in her refusal to start a journal. She is convinced that no one would want to see entries about her dogs, and the frenzy of activity around her bird feeder, and the millions of colourful flowers she grows around the house, and her grandchildren, and sunsets on the sea from her front room and the rugged beauty of north county Mayo on the west coast of Ireland. I nod emphatically that she is absolutely correct (I am mostly worried that she would harvest way too many likes and hearts everyday and leave me feeling very inadequate). 

What started you blipping?
I came across Skyroad's blipjournal, a local photographer, poet and misanthrope (or perhaps just Rahenophobe) in an online forum in 2007. I instantly loved his take on Dublin and its surrounding area. I actually saw him in a deserted car park in Glen of the Downs last week, about to set off on a walk with his Border Collie. I thought I’d say hello and do the 3-minute social thing called “small talk”. He looked terrified and told me “Don’t come closer... erm, because of Covid”. I tend to have that effect on people, in deserted car parks favoured by dog walkers and doggers. The fact that I had no dog with me must have placed me automatically in the second category... If you read this Mark, the fact that I was as welcome as a skid mark in your wedding day white Calvin Klein boxer shorts does not make me bitter, not in the least. All is forgiven. Thanks again for introducing me to blipfoto, all those years ago.   

 
ON LIFE, FAMILY &YOUR VIEW OF THE WORLD

What are your favourite subjects for photography and why?
People, definitely. I love to take photographs of people, street scenes. I have had many interesting conversations with people that I had just photographed. I used to be a lot more disciplined at systematically asking people for their permission once I had taken their photograph. And it only happened twice that I was asked to delete the shot there and then. Nowadays I don’t always stop and chat. A lot of the time I am cycling through town to and from work and it is just not practical. Also nowadays with smartphones people take photographs of everything and everyone at all times. I feel a bit less of an image thief if I haven’t sought someone’s permission. But it is not a good thing. I should ask systematically rather than make excuses. My photos are often humorous (or at least trying to be) but I do not try to ridicule people. I’m more in favour of laughing with than laughing at. There is a school of street photography that is rather cruel, if not threatening. There is no glory in sticking a ring flash in an unsuspecting old lady’s face and robbing her of her startled image. I also never take photographs of people sleeping rough on the street, in the same way I would never break into someone’s house and photograph them asleep in bed. 

I also like to take photographs of the members of my family as they go about their everyday lives (i.e. stare at an electronic device). Since I always have a camera on me or in my hands, they hardly notice it any more. It’s great for getting candid shots. A few years ago I saw a book of photographs by Linda McCartney, of candid shots of the McCartneys when they lived in Scotland. It was light years away from Beatlemania. Just family shots of everyday life. Unposed. Refreshing. Beautiful. She obviously knew how to take deadly photos, when she was not busy perfecting the recipe for the ultimate vegetarian sausage. I really enjoyed that book and it comforted me in the knowledge that there is beauty in everyday domestic life. Even if you don’t live on a massive estate in Scotland.  

It's clear to anyone that follows your journal that you often see the world differently and your daily subjects, that at first glance appear to be random, somehow fit together to tell the story of your own life and those around you. Was this deliberate or did it just evolve over the years?
There was no master plan when I set off on this blipjournal adventure. There still isn’t. I try not to complicate things. I don’t theorise or analyse. I always have a camera on me and I shoot the things I see. Since there are almost 5,000 of these images now, a narrative has developed. And I like it. I like to look back on the old blips. They serve their purpose and remind me of the story I was trying to tell on that day, at that precise moment. They reopen my eye to what I saw back then. It’s a wonderful feeling, especially as I am always afraid of forgetting some of the good stuff that has happened in my life, and it has been a busy, packed life. I could drop dead tomorrow and have no regrets, no postponed goals, no what-ifs, no I-should-have-when-I-coulds. This blipjournal is for my kids. To remind them of their “cringe 101 dad”. 

You have an incredible ability to take the most mundane daily events and some of the drudgery of people's lives and build a story around the image that makes even those sat alone in front of their screens laugh out loud.
Do you see your photography and writing style as humorous or are you simply recording what you see?
It’s all about story telling. Both with the image and the words. A lot of the time, I can hear the title of the blip in my head as I shoot it. I often have a good laugh as I write my blip. And I know which ones will give Nana a laugh, and she’ll shake her head and do that face that she does when I say something silly and totally immature but that makes her laugh. Then my work is done. I get a great buzz when people get a laugh out of my blips. Life can all too easily be depressing, with all the scaremongering and negative feelings and online pitched battles and real life pitched battles and referenda that divide nations and elections that reward populist agendas. I find that having a laugh is a great antidote. 

ABOUT BLIPFOTO

Why Blipfoto?
Because the concept is simple yet powerful. Because it is community-owned. Because it is the last little corner of the interweb devoid of nastiness. 

How has daily blipping impacted on your life generally?
I see more around me, I feel more, I think more, I create more. How many websites can have that claim? How many websites can change your outlook on life, in a positive way? 

What’s the biggest challenge with daily blipping?
There were times when it was challenging, but that was a long time ago. I have been at it for so long now that blipping is part of my day, like getting dressed or brushing my teeth. It is easy now because I do not put myself under pressure. I never ask myself if an entry is going to please a crowd, I ask myself if there is one entry that I am happy with.  And I am easily satisfied... 

What does the Blipfoto community mean to you?
It is the community that makes the magic of Blipfoto, as much as the simple concept that underpins what is essentially a celebration of life, not the life of premieres and celebs, but everyday life, the one that all too often non-blippers live without noticing. We are a fine bunch of people and we should give ourselves a big communal pat on the back. Pah, judging by the entries of the last few weeks, more and more of us are now vaccinated, f*** it, let’s go for a massive intercontinental group hug. 

I have been poor at commenting or socialising in the last few years. Blipfoto is my life but at the same time I have in my old age learned not to let it take over my life. I spend 20 minutes on it in the evening before going to bed, and I check it a few times during the day. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for not always acknowledging a heart or a new subscription or a kind comment. I am not grumpy or ignorant or unappreciative of the gesture. It usually is past 11pm when I read it and I am knackered and ready for bed. 

Thanks for visiting the journal, if you like it, brilliant, if you get a laugh even better. 

What would you say to other blippers or people who are considering signing up?
It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You will get as much from it as you will put into it. Don’t be afraid to spend some time on it at first (say, the first five years ;) see the daily life of people from all around the world, send them a little word of encouragement, or a heart. Subscribe to the ones that really strike a chord with you. Don’t be annoyed with them if they do not subscribe back. Before you know it, blip after blip after blip, you’ll realise that you are recording your life, and that it feels good to be able to look back on it with clarity. You’ll realise that it is priceless. Then you’ll perhaps come to agree that it is worth chipping in and help pay for the servers and storage space. It is after all your life. 

Top Ten
As with all Blipfoto profiles we asked Raheny Eye to tell us about his favourite ten journal entries and why.

Very difficult choice. The top 10 that I select today could be totally different from the 10 that I’d select in a year’s time. Rather than trawl back through all the archive, I have selected 5 mostly recent shots which I hope are representative of One Daze at a Time and 5 older ones. I have chosen images that can work without the words, although the words are always important to me (as you can probably tell, from the way I have been going on and on – and no, I am not paid by the word in my professional life...) 

Enjoy the short film here.

Thank you Raheny Eye, it has been an absolute pleasure and honour to feature your fantastic journal here.