Self Reflection In The Glass Of A Viewfinder

Artists can learn more about themselves if they take the time to look in from the other side of their art. Photographer Mitchell is about to find out more as he recognises what’s been happening to him the moment just before he presses the shutter button on his camera.

SEETHINGS and SEETHINGS 2 are the first two trilogy books — a darker look at photography, love, and sex. It’s about a photographer capturing the perfect lightning strike but ending up in another storm instead (excerpts are found here). What’s real and imagined becomes distorted between the lens and the viewfinder. The narrative places the reader at a cliff on the banks of the Brisbane River. Morning joggers find another photographer’s body. The plot follows our protagonist until five mystery deaths reveal an explosive ending that’ll horrify and delight.

If I could leave you, dear reader, with a few keywords — not everything a photographer needs to understand about the pictures they fail to capture comes from a misunderstanding of light, texture, line or tone. Sometimes the answers they seek are found deep within themselves. Thank God most don’t focus on that and, instead, choose to blame external influences for the errors. It’s better to lay blame there than confront the inner self. Finding answers there is not only difficult, but looking inwards (and not finding answers) can infuriate and frustrate. It might be enough to raise a hideous Beast.

If it surfaces, a dangerous change in the artist’s creativity may show in their work. The clues to the crimes committed lie within the work’s subjectivity. Only the artist will see them, and only if they’re prepared to go looking for them.

Get ready for twists that will bend your senses!

–Michael (Dark Fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)