Bus Station Theory

Short version
What to blip next?

Long version
Grayson Perry, in his last Reith lecture, quoted Finnish photographer Arno Minkkinen's Helsinki Bus Station Theory. When you choose your "style", there are several platforms each with several buses leaving from it, and you choose a bus to get on. But after a few stops, you don’t like what you’re doing, you get off and get a taxi back to the bus station. Then you get on a different bus. And then of course you get off again, and the same thing happens. What you need to do, says Minkkinen, is stay on the effing bus.

I had hoped that after a year of blipping, I would have found the right bus for me. I’ve met blippers who have mastered, or are in the process of mastering, their own particular photographic style. I’ve seen wonderful reportage, amazing wildlife and unbelievable macros. Witty, provocative Photoshopped images, self-portraits, and beautifully staged studio shots. People who specialise in doing clever things with colour, and others who produce stunning shots in black and white.

But a year on and I’m still faffing about at the bus station, trying to make sure I have the right change for my bus fare.

One final observation. Of all the 365 blips I posted in my first year, there was only ONE which did not involve me actually using a camera to take a photograph. There is irony in the fact that this is the image which was my 'highest rated' blip for the year. And all I did was hang up a sign pointing people to the toilet.