The Spirit of ubuntu
This was originally published in my Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign-up for a weekly update to your inbox here.
In the late 2000s I worked for a company called Canonical. They were the business side of Ubuntu, a Windows replacement for your computer that was open-source and entirely free to use by anyone in the world on any type of computer. You could modify it too, and a community of thousands contributed to making Ubuntu better all the time. Ubuntu is African word meaning “humanity towards others” or “I am because we are.” and that was very much the spirit of the product. We were all better off because of the work we collectively did.
I’ve written and thought a lot about the philosophy of what we make recently. It came up in the newsletter last week and in conversation with Joel, Maggie, Manon and Jacob on this week’s episode so I thought that in this newsletter I would celebrate the work of some friends because no one is making in a vacuum. The things we make and share and talk about are always in conversation with one another.
First up, I sat down with Tom Oldham to talk about his upcoming exhibition in partnership with James Hole and Ron Timehin in London and how it came about. Tom basically replied to a marketing email from Printspace in London and asked if he could showcase some work, setting a great example to us all that we need to put ourselves and our work out there if we want to move things forward. The result is a an open evening on the 2nd October in London from 6pm until 9pm followed by the chance to visit the exhibition for a week afterwards. You can get tickets for FREE right now on their Eventbrite page, and if you can make it I’d encourage you to get down there. Human made work is so important in an age of AI and supporting living artists is also something I’m passionate about doing so if you can, get down there.
From an old friend of the show to a new one. Hannah is a film photographer who goes by the handle @hann_onfilm and I came across her account via a story she shared. It was a Love Letter to her favourite camera. I adored this idea and wanted to share it with all of you, so I asked her if she’d be on the show to talk about the idea and give me her blessing to steal the idea. Thankfully she said yes, and shared the personal reasons for making her two public love letters to cameras. I like this because our friends and folks we follow can and should be a source of inspiration to us. Hannah has encouraged me to write a couple of blog posts about lenses and cameras that mean a lot to me. Things I’ve been meaning to write for a long time but haven’t. If you follow her example let me know, I’d love to speak to some of you, and maybe record and share the conversation.
Finally, Foto is an app for sharing your photos that prioritises photography over selling you t-shirts or socks, not that it can’t be useful occasionally when you’re researching backpacks but that’s a story from a previous newsletter. It is being built by a small team, led by Michael Howard who I had on the show a couple of months back for a great conversation. Very early on in the process they started a podcast because they know that a big part of creative work is community and now they’re going further by organising a global photowalk on the 27th September 2025. I’m leading a walk in Inverness and would love to see you there if you’re local. You can sign up here. I love what Michael and the gang at Foto are doing and I’m excited to support them and help to foster a community around photography.
Check your podcast feed for the audio of me speaking to Tom and Hannah, and as always, thank you for supporting and sharing the show.