Isolation or loneliness?

Preparing for the off, Stavanger, January 2008

Ah, serendipity or coincindence?...

Today the Landscapist says:

Most photographers are 'hobbyists'. On the whole, they are not trying to
"say something about something worth saying", they are just trying to make
pretty pictures. For them, the act of making pictures is little more than a
pleasant activity with which to occupy one's time.

and also Paul Butzi quotes playwright Robert Schenkkan

The process by which stories emerge is kind of mysterious. I’m not trying
to be coy, but I also have not, to be honest, tried to examine that process too
closely for fear that it might damage it.

whilst at the same time I had been thinking about the context of my last couple of posts.

On Tuesday I posted a photo which I titled "Spartan: the loneliness of the business traveller" and then yesterday I posted several that I took in my hotel room. At first yesterday's shooting started as "goofing around" but it started to form into a mini-series, which I posted. I wasn't really thinking too hard about the composition (so it was interesting to read Tommy Williams' comments). The photos just sort of came out. What formed, though, was a sense of the spartan, isolated surroundings that make up the typical business hotel room. I started thinking about the idea of isolation, being alone and whether or not it constituted loneliness as in my first title. I don't think so.

Travelling on business like this certaainly has me spending a lot of time alone but that happens anyway at home. In the hotel, however, there is a distinct feeling of isolation - being placed apart from real life. This doen't necessarily mean loneliness. Lonely is a loaded word, to me it conjours up feelings of both isolation (being alone) and exclusion (not connecting with other people). In fact the only times I really feel "lonely" in that sense are in crowds. When I'm by myself I'm quite happy in splendid isolation. OK, I've got the Internet at the moment but if there was something good on TV, I'd not be sat here writing.

What's all thisgot to do with the 2 quotes above: well, I realised as I was snapping away in my room that there was more to shoot than just pretty pictures or picturing as a distraction but I wasn't really thinking too hard about the process (I'm not sure I ever do at the time) but just letting the pictures come out. It was only after that I brought the whole thing together into this train of thought.