Do You See What I See?

I felt very honourd when Jimmy first approached me to write the foreward to the book you now have in front of you, and have been a huge fan of his work and often wicked brand of humour since being first drawn to it, in the social milieu of online photography. What jimmy seemed to be asking me for was a clean bill of mental health from me in my professional capacity as a psychiatrist...and what he gits instead is ALL THUMBS AND TOES UP on a brilliant, incorrigible and inspired collection of work, it is my pleasure to play any part in.

My reflections on the subject of humour have not escaped the irony in the naming of what we call humour, in that it shares the same term used medically for bodily fluids. Indeed, I immediately see the link between what Jimmy produces, and my common reaction to it, in that I often feel about to lose control of the latter humours as I look at jimmy's work time and again.

Humour has in recent years gained increasing street cred in it's value as a health tonic, though it's role as one of the most advanced and mature forms of psychological defence mechanisms dates several decades back to Anna Freud's and George Vaillant's work on the subject.

Knowing some of the man behind the humour, for me raises this work to a plane where I see a bridge spanning to form an understanding of a person committed to his family, full of compassion for the world, and involved through his life worldwide in working with the most vulnerable, underprivileged people that share our troubled planet.

This book makes me laugh till I cry, and feels at times like a contortionist workout for my mind and eyes. Sometimes seeing is believing, but more often than not, seeing results in doubting my pre-existing ideas and concepts, and I always love and welcome that challenge. Of all the childhood fairy-tales, my favorite was always The Emperor's New Clothes. James Sallie is very much the boy in the crowd, who calls it like he sees it. Often shocking, whacky, naughty, off the wall and always so original as to make me wonder and look forward very much to what he might be doing next. Congratulations my friend on you first publication - wishing you every success with it, and to your readers, I wish Bon Voyage into the hilarious mindset of one of my favourite larrikins.

RodeoRose, March 2011