My 'Ten Seconds' Project

When I was a little girl, I used to play with my younger brother, Oskar. I was always the boss, and directed what we had to do. We often played hide and seek, but had invented our own way of playing it. I would tell Oskar where to hide, and then count and look aimlessly around pretending not to know where he was. Or we would both hide and get our father, who used to look after us in the mornings, to be the finder. Our hiding places were never very hidden, and in most cases still revealed our small feet or bottoms, but never our faces.

‘Ten Seconds’ is a series of photographs that pay homage to our childhood game. I am now a lot older, and my brother is out in the world, all grown up. I have based ‘Ten Seconds’ on the game we used to play. This time I am directing myself, and the new rule is that I have ten seconds to try and hide, or make myself as small as I possibly can, before my camera goes off on self-timer.

I have also been recording the game with a camcorder, so that I am almost my own seeker, my adult body squeezed into confined spaces, never completely concealed, but also never revealing my true identity.

When we were children, our father used to video us playing. The home movie of my brother and me playing our own invention of Hide and Seek will be shown as part of the Series.

I think this project has the potential to go viral. Recently a new craze appeared, called ‘Planking.’ A person has to lie flat with their arms by their sides; feet stretched out and face looking downwards, expressionless. People all around the world are joining the craze and posting their photographic evidence on Face Book. ‘Planking’ has encouraged creativity and resourcefulness, and brought a community of people together from all different walks of life.

‘Ten Seconds’ could do something similar. Through play, people will be encouraged to be creative and inspire others. I would love to originate a harmless game that involves good photography. Using social media, I would want to make this game ‘viral,’ so that anyone can join in, set the self-timers on their cameras, and hide in the smallest places available.

If you'd like to join me in my mission or just ask a question email me, alma@haser.org

A rainy Sunday afternoon

'Ten seconds in the kitchen'

'Ten seconds in the cupboard'

'Ten seconds in the rain'

Untitled from Alma Haser on Vimeo.

Guernsey Photography Festival

1st-3rd June

We arrived on the island at mid day, got a taxi to the Pine Way B&B and dropped off our bags. The lovely lady at the Guesthouse organised us some bikes so mum and I cycled around the coast before heading to the main town where the festival was taking place.

We stopped for lunch at Crabby Jacks by the sea and then carried on, stopping whenever I saw another a beautiful land mark or a roadside sale box (cute little boxes in hedges, where the locals sold their home grown raspberries, flowers and vegetables. Click here to see some of them.)

We came to a great orange rock, which stood out in the distance and I loved the colour against the blue sky. I set up the camera and ran over to where mum was standing. 'Turn around and show of your nice yellow flower,' she said, before the photograph was taken. Mum had bought me the flower at Bristol Airport so I would stand out amongst the other photographers at the festival.

At the opening night in St Peters Port, I met Jocelyn Allen, the winner of this year Guernsey photography competition. She is the same age as me and is also doing a lot of self-portraits. I really like her work and it was great to meet another young artist doing well and enjoying what they do.

I was also captivated by the work of Nelli Palomäki, who shoots beautiful black and white portraits of children and adults who interest her. I really liked her artist statement. There was no bullshit, just the truth to how she creates her work and feels about photography today (you can read her statement on her website.)

I also had a photograph on show at the festival, in the Tim Andrews exhibition. Tim Andrews approached me last year, asking if I would take his portrait for a project he had been doing for a few years. I was photographer number 141 to take his picture. He has been diagnosed with Parkinson's and has been using the medium of photography to document and bring awareness to the disease. Here is the photograph that is being shown as part of the project. (you can see all the work at the Guernsey Photography Festival until the 30th June.) Also an there is an article on the Phaidon website.