Why do I photograph Lego?

Bev Thomas • 31 July 2018

How many times have I heard why do you photograph lego?

Week 30 sees the word Anger appear in my list of values. This words comes just around the time I begin to get a little frustrated about the times I get asked why do you photograph lego, and the fact other people just do not understand. It's simple you either like the images and get the concept or you do not, it is as easy to understand that! So how about this, I will answer the question as to why I photograph a little piece of lego and perhaps then you might just understand my logic as to why I find this toy photography rather fun to create, plus it is not hurting anyone and perhaps making someone stop and think and smile.

So as I have said before in previous posts, I started Instagram in 2016 whilst in University studying for a Batchelor of Arts in Photography. Photography is my life work and gaining a first class honours degree was just something special in the process of recognition. Since receiving my degree and numerous other certificates related to the photographic industry, I realise that I have done so much and I can leave paper behind to suggest I was here once, when I eventually meet my maker. I can also leave others with memories of special wedding day memories and newborn images or their own families photographs, I can even leave behind memory books for my own family but I wanted to develop something more.

November 21st 2000, the release on DVD was the box office movie, my husband and I sat down to watch this movie which has stayed with me for all these years and turns out to be one of our favourite films. I found myself remembering it for perhaps a reason that the directors did not intentionally make it for, that movie was Gladiator. You have all seen it? Right! - Staring the actor Russell Crow, Set in Roman times, the story of a once-powerful general forced to become a common gladiator. The emperor's son is enraged when he is passed over as heir in favour of his father's favourite general. He kills his father and arranges the murder of the general's family, and the general is sold into slavery to be trained as a gladiator - but his subsequent popularity in the arena threatens the throne.
My Favourite and most famous quote from Maximus: "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next". What draws my attention during this whole film is the fact he has these enduring little figures of his family which he carries with him ... when asked by a fellow gladiator he replies:

Juba: Can they hear you?
Maximus: Who?
Juba: Your family. In the afterlife.
Maximus: Oh yes.
Juba: What do you say to them?
Maximus: To my son - I tell him I will see him again soon. To keep his heels down while riding his horse. To my wife... that is not your business.

So without stating that I am anywhere near a Gladiator standard, I feel connected to that family dream, I am fortunate to have special people in my life, living and breathing, to whom I am extremely proud of and so I began to use the concept of Lego to create images that resonate with my daily life and feelings, perhaps one day these lego figures may be looked at in the same way that Gladiator used his, until then I continue to create and have fun with them as part of a little ongoing project that was started in 2016, life through a lens.

I am hoping that you have read this, you might now understand why! - what started as a bit of fun and enduring, to joining a community of wonderful and creative people, to what was really at the back of my head that was subliminal all along, Gladiator and the love he has for his family and country.

You can read more about why I started Toy Photography by popping over to the Stuck in Plastic community blog and reading my interview from a few weeks ago by clicking on the link https://www.stuckinplastic.com/2018/06/meet-beverly/
Also on SIP blog you can also read about the little competition I came runner up in https://www.stuckinplastic.com/2018/06/quarterback/

We all possess values and since starting the SIP goes 52 week challenge using my lego figures, I have come to realise that these are a great learning tool and in the words of Gladiator "What we do in life echoes in eternity".


Thanks for reading my little blog, On the balance of things, there you go - this is my why? and 7 months of values completed during 2018. 30 weeks of words with meanings, my thoughts and my processes all put into one image using an inanimate object and giving it a reason to exist. I know it is not for everyone and perhaps still others may not get it, like I said its fun and I get to be creative if I want to be.

For more images and to follow the life of bevvypix please join our facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/247486849335137/?source_id=177997148891854

or join our adventure on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/bevvypix/

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