Edward Glynne Jones
Back in the end of January I went to Castiglioncello in Tuscany, Italy for a short film shoot. It was much needed at the time. I found the end of last year particularly difficult, creatively, professionally, and mentally. I needed a change. I needed a break, I needed some work, needed some inspiration, needed to get back on set, and come to the think of it, I needed some confidence.
I fell in love. The atmosphere, the landscape, the food, the people (and the Negronis). My grandfather was even Italian and shockingly this was the first time I had visited. It's quite easy to get too caught up in the same routine and forget how much is actually out there. I loved it so much that before the height of this pandemic, I started thinking about travelling there to see some friends and see more of the country. But as they say, ‘The best laid plans…’
I moved into a new house the week before lockdown. I was starting to look back through my portfolio and I saw these photos in a completely different way. Viewing them in lockdown was an escape. It was an escape out of my physical space from living on a busy London road, (I live on Harlesden high street in Brent, one of the worst hit boroughs in London, a very strange place to be during this time) and it was also a mental escape, as it was the most recent happy holiday memory I had.
It seems ironic, looking back at these, that I happened to go Italy just before the global pandemic, a surreal case of the universe aligning itself. Looking now at these photos I realised the stillness of them. We went during the ‘off’ season and were filming in a hotel. The eeriness of this empty holiday destination was now telling a completely different story. Before it was ‘a nice quiet moment’ now it’s almost a prophecy of what was to come, to the service industry, tourism industry, film industry.
I hope I don’t come across tooting my own horn as a soothsayer, predicting through my photos. I just can’t quite ignore these weird coincidences, the link between my own life and the rest of the planet. Was mother Gaia speaking to me and possibly all of us? Or I have I just spent too much time inside looking at these photos?
You can follow more of Edward’s beautiful work on his instagram, here.