It's 4:10am. The alarm is going off on my phone. I stretch out and pick it up. Do I turn it off or just toss it out the window and go back to sleep? Bleary-eyed, I opt to turn it off and drag my tired backside out of bed. Why do I do this to myself?
Washed and changed I creep down the stairs so I don’t wake anyone else in the house, I step over Elvis our large white goldendoodle who’s lying at the bottom of the stairs, he half lifts his head and puts it back down. The kettle goes on, coffee in the travel mug, I get my camera bag, place it on the table, check its contents - it’s all there. Elvis still has one eye on what i’m doing, I walk back over to him - his tail half wagging, tapping on the floor, I give him a stroke, ask him if he’s coming for a walk - he looks at me as if to say come back and ask again in a few hours - he’s not a morning dog!!
Bag over my shoulder, coffee in hand, I make my way out and through the housing estate and walk down the dusty track which used to be a railway line back in the 70’s. It’s a 15 minute walk to my destination - the next village over. I reach there dead on 5am.
Why did I get up so early ? Well it’s for my summer project ‘Before We Wake’ documenting the stillness of my local area between the hour of 5am and 6am, when the vast majority of sensible people are still in bed. It’s not just for the photography though, Walking down the track, the sun is just rising. I can feel the warmth of those first rays on my face. The dawn chorus is in full swing. A deer slips between the hedgerows ahead of me. There's nobody else around. Just solitude. That's the real reason I do this to myself.
It’s been clear blue skies most of the time, not my preferred way of working, I like moody overcast days, but we’re in the middle of a heatwave, so I work with what i’m dealt - i’m not that precious and time is ticking, this isn't my first outing of the project and it certainly won’t be my last, I say time is ticking and it truly is, not just of my one hour time restraint, but how our planet revolves around us, the longest day has already passed us by, I’ve already noticed i’m slowly losing some of my first light, and it will only get worse as the weeks pass. The project isn’t governed by how many weeks or how many images, it’s governed by available light.
My camera of choice for this project is old, it’s small, it’s nimble, it’s practical, it feels fantastic to hold, it doesn’t attract attention - it’s the Olympus stylus 1s, a camera i’ve written about before on the site. It only has a 1/1.7 inch sensor - Is low light and dynamic range a problem, not as much as you may think - this camera in my opinion punches well above it’s weight and still very much usable in 2026.
The village is empty of life, well almost, I may see the odd commuter passing through on their way to work. What am I looking for ? Signs of presence without any presence, signs of we’re here but not quite ready for the world to wake yet. I wander the streets, camera in hand, ready to capture what captures my attention. Wider scenes include empty roads with parked cars, moisture sitting on the windscreens with the change in temperature as the morning begins to warm.
Washing left on lines, knowing it’s not going to rain. Milk freshly delivered to the doorstep - a rare sight these days, how long before that totally disappears ? Newspapers sticking out of letter boxes, that one is wishful thinking. Closed signs hanging in shop doors, metal shutters over windows, empty chairs and tables outside of pubs and restaurants, maybe a leftover beer bottle from the last remaining punter of the night before. Playgrounds still and silent, waiting patiently for the first excitable child to arrive. Bus stops with no one waiting, a train at the station, but no passengers to board it. Early morning mist rising from the Thames, with only swans gracefully gliding through it at the marina.
Presence without presence is all around us, some more obvious than others, take your time, walk slowly, be curious, be nosey and the less obvious becomes obvious, it doesn’t need over thinking or you’ll miss it. This is one project i’ve really enjoyed working on and continue to do so. Are there any outstanding individual images so far? Will there ever be? Probably not. But as a collective body of work, they don't need to be. Together they tell a story, and that story is Before We Wake.