The Challenge : “Action”

Action? Who set this challenge? I mean, Action in lockdown? Well that’s just daft. Then it got me thinking, if I can’t do the obvious, what else? So I did that thing of looking at the dictionary definition “the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim”. Ok, so that’s a bit broader but maybe a bit wooly too. So I started thinking about words or phrases that have action in them.

So how about Newton’s third law, every action has an equal but opposite reaction, maybe a Newton’s cradle. I just can’t get excited about taking a photo of a Newton’s cradle and after I’ve shot it what then, it’s just a picture of a Newton’s cradle, we’ve all seen them.

What about the action of taking a photo? Way too circular and the problem with circular things, they’re pointless. So what about action as protest, more exciting but where am I going to find a socially distanced, locked down protest.

What about abstracting action further, domino affect? Maybe. More exciting. What about time as the ultimate action, nothing escapes the impact of time after all and it could fit with the domino affect too. What about geological action or maybe environmental, maybe the reclamation of the salt marsh? This is definitely starting to feel more interesting now. Oh hang on, environmental action, climate change.

Ok, so I know Covid is grabbing the headlines but climate change and more importantly climate action is the biggest story on the planet. So that’s how I’ve ended up with an image of Africa made of shattered ice; a metaphor for the impact of melting polar glaciers on what will be the worst hit areas of the planet unless we take action. What a challenge!

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All images Copyright Paul Aldred 2021