Lucy Pinnell

Transient

Over the winter of 22/23 we continued on from our original Transient self-documentary project, following our journey from the UK to the Caucasus mountains. With Transient II we wanted to capture all elements of the journey, from preparation to departure, documenting the challenges of travelling in a 20 year old van and the hardships presented to us by the harsh winter elements. We also set out to capture the dull moments, the everyday duties we must perform with a lack of mod cons available to us, the scenes that have become so natural to us we seldom think to pick up a camera. While we find our simple way of life unremarkable, growing accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of van living, we are reminded time and again that our lifestyle is in itself iconoclastic, a statement whether intentional or not against the conveyer belt of institution. It is a rejection of the societal principles that value careers and mortgages over happiness and experiences, much like generations of disillusioned travellers before us, such as the hippies and the New Age movement. Transient is also a deliberate defiance of the age of social media, a time of rapidly accelerated micro-cultures and scroll addiction, wherein the value of an image is decided by the viewer in just 0.25 seconds. ‘Content’ has replaced photography, and The Algorithm, a vacuous coal fire, demands a never-ending amount of it to keep its fire burning. Our photographic work is slow and intentional, as is our lifestyle, embracing the slow photography movement in an effort to quell the digital tsunami and produce thoughtful and thought-provoking imagery. These images are untypical of what you might see under hashtags online, but they offer a raw and unflinching look at our lives on the road, stripped back of any romanticism and charade.