Photographer Rick Senley’s obsession with photography. Every bus journey, every train ride, every commute. Even if he’s driving. He has to take pictures..
I love being alone, love having time and space to think. Except I don’t. Because when I think, I ruminate; when I ruminate, I think. When I think again, I get anxious. When I get anxious, I get depressed. When I get depressed…. Well, it’s best I don’t go there.
I also love looking at the world. Except people’s clothes and hair and faces and voices set off my OCD. And it’s my OCD that drives much of my photography – an obsession to get the next picture, and the next and the next.
If the light is good and I haven’t got my camera (I don’t have a smartphone) or I’m stuck in a meeting or having dinner with someone, or seeing my psychotherapy clients, I feel as if I’m suffocating or drowning, trapped in a world that doesn’t understand my need to take pictures, to snap and click and press over and over and over again.
Every bus journey, every train ride, every time I step onto a boat. Every commute to work. Even if I’m driving. I have to take pictures. I can’t miss anything; an angle, a shadow, a face, a reflection, a perfect mess of colours that strangely calms my anxiety, loosens my throat and lungs.
On a bus I’m unseen, unheard. I spy on other peoples’ lives. Without my camera and a window to sit next to. Well, it’s best you don’t sit next to me.
