Put on those dancing shoes... Kick off those dancing shoes

Carmi in his blog is looking for images of feet so, taken out of context, here are some that immediately suggest the full subject matter...

















... a wedding party... and talking of weddings this bridesmaid had been running around on the grass in bear feet and then had to get to her car along a gravel path so throwing dignity to the wind she sat in a (siblings?) push chair...






And more feet from a wedding...

Abstracted memories

Abstract is the subject for Carmi's Thematic Photopgraphic 80 so here is an abstracted abstract photograph shown in its location ~ old steps by a canal lock

Better to travel than to arrive...

Carmi's theme this week at Written Inc is travel ... so yes I could do the travel brochure images, or the alternative travel brochure images, but this are much more mundane, daily travel to work this month has been by train, only two stops, into Manchester and out again. Commuter travel is often a problem so prefer to arrive and leave later so trains are not so frequent. Waiting is part of train travel ... whether for the commuter train ...





...or crossing Europe







.... while here the train runs so rarely that you walk the tracks.

[Apologies if you have seen some of these previously]

Seeing Red

Seeing red is what Carmi Red urges us to do this week.




I dislike Coca-Cola, the drink... the company... the ethos... the ethics, the commercialism, and what they have done to Christmas. In my mind Coca-Cola stands for all that is bad and I hated their drink machines being placed in schools.... so when I saw one discarded...

... and put to a better use collecting rainwater ...


Come to think of it the rainwater, even Manchester rainwater, may be more drinkable than the original bottled contents!

PS. Apologies to those who like the stuff but before you drink it again check out how good it is at cleaning dirty pavements... ... or maybe that is why people mix it with strong alcohol...

In perspective

Carmi provided the subject of perspective for this week and it makes you stop and think..

Different standpoints on subjects,
....different views of the same subject,
............the traditional infinity perspective
.....................and I suppose the large format camera image that is actually correct optically, but not visually.

So here are two perspectives, first a traditional distance image with converged lines and associated loss of detail at infinity...


By Manchester Town hall lunchtime today ... when it forgot to rain and people were so surprised they stayed in their offices... Really the cobbles should be wet...

While the second ...is an Italian view of security on their border with Slovenia in the divided town of Goriza (Hemmingway's location for a 'Farewell to Arms' ) before Slovenia joined the EU in May 2004 depicted by two images. At this time right wing newspapers were scaremongering that when the former eastern block countries joined the EU millions of their country-folk would cross en-mass to the UK and take all our jobs away...However, long before their threatened destruction of England, Slovenians could cross anytime they wished, legally or through the 'holes', but most of the daily crossing was the other way ~ Italian students living in Slovenia because it was cheaper (and a better standard of living there than in England). The newspaper perspective was simply biased.


... the border fence...Taken from Italy into Slovenia in March 2004 before they joined the EU, the garden fence needs repair...


...and the plaque... on EU day +1, remembering 50 years ago

The border operated with a typical Italian arrangement, so there were many crossings, some for locals and others for tourists, some controlled some of the time and others, well, available to cross over or pass contraband as and when you wanted. The day after Slovenia joined the EU (there was over a month between the photographs) people would come and stand at the commemorative plaque in the now open Plaza for a time, contemplate and then walk away. What the image does not show is that Tito grabbed part of Goriza after the end of WW2, taking the most impressive railway station I have seen and the plaza was, as with the rest of the city was divided by an iron fence / railings.

The final images are for context...


An unofficial disused(?) crossing point March 2004

The station with the open Plaza after joining the EU

The station with the iron fence & wall that ran through the town ~ after joining the EU

Big drips

Carmi's theme for thematic photographic this week is 'Big'. A very subjective subject and something that is smaller than bigger and biggest...

So here is my image of something on a grand scale along with the human figures in the third image (about halfway up and near the right hand edge) as a key to show you what it is.... and a colour image as well as the B&W one...

Summer Promenade

Continuing the Summer theme...


I went to see my father in Worthing and arrived for a couple of 'almost summer' days there, although it was breezy to say the least - as demonstrated in the first image taken with a real lens, overexposed and shot out of focus. The remaining images are from some 100+ I took that afternoon through the Guinness can lens on my digital SLR. On the 'Apple' some 50 of them are now in the form of a slide show with accompanying evocative music from Patsy Klein ~ but I've not found a way to produce this on the blog.

I feel these images are so much more effective than those from our local canal (which I then decided not to post) and probably there is a book in them. Some images will perhaps be too large and are best viewed without opening them up; however they are meant to be soft and dream-like and I have over exposed them all on the computer accordingly.

For those of you who have not tried digital pinhole photography the exposure times were 1 to 10 seconds for a normal contrast image at 100 ISO. Focusing is much harder than with a view camera (the aperture is probably around f150) and you are really looking for bright elements to help frame the image in the viewfinder, then trial and error altering the framing after capture. You will need a sturdy tripod! I think a digital back on a waist level viewing Hassel / Mamiya / Rolliflex would be good for framing here. I still have to my beautiful wooden 5x4 pinhole camera with out of date film...

Experimental work: Guiness photography

I've been wanting to try digital pinhole photography and having found a spare body cap for my SLR a can of Guinness was required to make the 'lens' (for the non Guinness drinkers, the part of the can you use is the black area so one can will make plenty of pinholes). The third attempt produce a reasonable lens with exposures from about 1.5 - 20 seconds at 100 ISO. I'd heard that you could use the priority settings but on the Olympus this did not work except in bright light so manual and test images were required as I forgot my exposure meter to calibrate the aperture.

The images are on my Apple at the moment but will hopefully get them across to the PC to put on the blog.

Summer - What Summner

Carmi's photographic theme this week is 'Summer'. I would just like to have one this year, not just a few sunny days between May and August 20. Last year we had a proper summer and as my memories of an English Summe: sun, wind sometimes, waves, sand, rocks, camping, messing about on the river, and sitting on cliff tops.

So here is some nostalgic summer from Cornwall ~ maybe I will post something later from one of the sunny days this year...








That feels better...

And More...

Abandoned Mill

Carmi's theme this week is 'Abandoned'. This is found to the North East of Manchester...



>

Human Traces

Preconceptions?

beauty ~ 'A' bomb victim

abandoned ~ united

solitude ~ rush hour

'non Chinese' ~ penholder

1990 Brixton ~ racial tension

How much do we take for granted, how much do we presume we know the answers?
(Yes these are out of context & no there is not an answer, just have fun thinking about them)

Naturally Human

No

Comment

Human

For Thematic Photographic 49 Carmi's subject this week is Human so check it out to see images of people and traces of their existence. You will find plenty of human images in Moments in Time so have a longer browse. Look at images from London ... images that are painful ... those we view through rose-tinted glasses, although the reality was harsh and of course documentary portraits...

Found Yellow

Some golden oldies.. in the autumn sun...

River Stour in Dorset

Shooting Yellow

Carmi's latest challenge is the subject 'yellow', a colour occasionally seen in nature and associated with spring, but more often used when something in the material world has to stand out as a warning.

Natural...

So today, armed with my DSLR and only an old style manual focus lens which gave an effective 100mm f1.2 and threw everything out of focus beautifully and, feeling as if I had turned the clock back over 30 years to photographic college, I went to shoot ‘yellow’. Naturally , because my life would not have been worth living had I left him behind, I was accompanied by our GR Dexter, who was happy to leave me to it most of the time but disapproved with great indignity whenever we stopped (and he was on the lead) by the side of the road.

Rubbish, signs, a solitary metal post, barriers, new gas pipes being installed, speed cameras, cycling jackets and of course those little yellow boxes that the postman used to bring containing those wonderful Kodachrome 25 images....

Throw-away Pizza...


Just don't even think of parking here....


Identity Crisis...

Information...

Purposeless...

Graffiti...


Speed control ....

If water is Blue...
...and Gas is yellow ...

...these are....


... going to cause traffic chaos ...


Recycled scaffolding...


Un-recycled wrapper...

Work in progress...


On pavement parking...


The most recognisable yellow box..

DIY....

Yellow for green travel...


Shooting a single colour concentrates the mind and I only deviated slightly, as you can see on Dexter’s blog. I suppose to be really disciplined I should have taken my pinhole camera and taken one good ‘yellow image’, or even a roll of 12 exposures. Of course with digital we could make any image ‘yellow’…

Round 2

Nature in colour and 'mostly manufactured' in B&W (the fossils are genuine)

Round and round and round: Thematic Photographic 46

Round ...












For the basis of this check out Carmi's blog and then join in and meet the others...

Thematic Photographic 45- Floral

For the basis of this check out Carmi's blog and then join in and meet the others...



Weddings ~ a sure place for floral expertise to be on display



Glimpses from two weddings a week apart, one in brilliant sunshine, the other overcast and some rain ~ just part of the typical changeable British summer




For those with a technical bent the soft images are with an older Olympus lens on my digital camera where it becomes an effective 100mm f1.2, at which aperture and focal length you have absolutely no depth of field.

All the best images are made at the most inconvienent times

Sometimes it is difficult and you have to make yourself make images.

Waiting... tranquility

It happened early on this very still winter Saturday morning about 6 years ago. I lived about half a mile from this point by foot, about 300 meters as the geese flew, the river was shrouded in mist from a clear sky the day before and it was just a case of waiting for some light to appear....



On other occasions you just wait as in this image made at the opposite end of the day from our road... but with a large format camera and large tripod etc

Thematic Photographic 44 Edible

Carmi at Written Inc has selected edible as his subject for Thematic Photographic 44 where you will find many other offerings on the subject.

This one I suppose you could say is slightly unusual...

The Smithfield Meat Market, London before it moved... far too early in the morning... meat enough here to feed half of London! I was taking photographs for a friend's thesis and just saw the opportunities of this... with an obliging butcher...




The art of persuasion!

Whilst I do not serve cooked Pigs or Boars head as a centerpiece for dinner it used to be a delicacy...

But on a more serious note we often forget how our food arrived ... I'm just glad I am not a butcher

Reflective

This post was made for Carmi's Thematic Photographic 43 - Reflective where we are invited to link images under his theme for the week. Check it out here.

Sunday afternoon ...the open expanse of sea sky and beach, a sunny day and light breeze, dog happy to walk for miles and my wife and I wandering along.

Don't some places generate a sense of being reflective... the beach, woods and rivers do this for me. However with the theme of reflective, and I have to admit to working with this thought for the last couple of days, I realised just how much we miss... all surfaces apart from a complete matte black are reflective to some degree, but we tend to look for the perfect reflection or mirror image and as I look back over my blog postings you will find many reflection images.

So back to the beach and today faced with bright sun sea and sand at Formby in North West England I looked for the less obvious images...sea coal...no diamonds in this piece unfortunately but as you turn it in the sunlight the shiny surface sparkles... ... and there just could be diamonds there!

The brilliant sunlight also reflected blindingly off the small amounts of water held by the ripples of sand.. ... until it seeped away



graphic images but readily identifiable

Then into the distance and photograph light rather than the image..

Thematic photographic - 'Drab' take 2

These are further images for Carmi's thematic photographic weekly subject. Have a look here and have a go yourself.

On reflection many of my B&W social documentary images fall within the title Drab either because of the weather or their subject...

However one area that I have always through of as being drab is a border crossing or border area and the hinterland; they become even 'drabber' when they had been the subject of conflict. Part of my masters involved European post conflict borderlands and here are a few ~ mostly these were made on medium format 6x12 film and scanned to a large file size, so here are some smaller email size images.


Near Sangatte France


Gib - Spain


Spain -Gib


Gib


Former E German border town


Just in E Germany by Iron Curtain


Iron Curtain remains - looking in


Iron Curtain remains - looking out


Section of Iron Curtain (by towns it was often a wall)


E Germany post unification abandonment


E Germany post unification abandonment


E Germany post unification abandonment


E Germany post unification abandonment


E Germany post unification abandonment


Cyprus North of Green Line


Cypus North of Green Line


Cyprus North of Green Line


Cyprus North of Green Line


Spanish Africa border


Spanish Africa border


Africa


Spanish Africa border


Spanish Africa border


Former Yugoslavia near Italy

Organised labour and the recession

Carmi has asked for comment about "Should we be getting tough with unions, and the old-style companies that can't seem to break them? Will this recession finally kill organized labour? Should it?"

As my thoughts are lengthy for a comment I thought it best to put them on my blog and link it to his. It is a big subject and much could be written on it... However...

From a UK perspective the unions are sometimes necessary. I used to live near where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to death for meeting to organise the opposition to wage cuts for farm labourers exploited by wealthy landowners (later commuted to 7 years transportation to Australia), similarly with the Peterloo Massacre here in Manchester on 16 August 1819, many were killed by dragoons when they charged the crowd on horseback with their sabres drawn for meeting to oppose the evils that were taking place.

I joined a union when a government minister decided we would have miniscule percentage rises while he would a large % rise on his already large salary. I left when they became more concerned over political correctness and fringe rights than their main purpose.

If all businesses were fair and just – no we would not need them. Unfortunately this is not the case and many businesses have strange views of their employees wealth as a human being. Some years ago a French co-operative (80s?) operated on the basis of no one was worth more than three times the lowest paid employee based on a full working week. If something like this came in world wide and those who sought to get round it were very heavily financially penalised....

In the UK we had a bad case where the CEO of a bank which had very done badly and had to be bailed out by the government received a mega million payout on ‘early retirement’ in his early 50s. He refused to give this back despite public outcry and government requests; and whilst some years ago words would probably have been spoken and an accident would have occurred, today it is left to members of the public who in this case attacked his house and car.

I believe there is a case for a strong workforce representation at board level and it should have more influence than the shareholders currently do. Maybe we should make greed an imprisonable offence...

Thematic photographic - Drab

Oh Dear!

Carmi suggested Drab as the subject for this weeks thematic subject and just after reading it today it rained... heavily and the wind blew... This was on my way to work.

It would equally have have been grayish buildings, clothes or weather - I just hope are not facing a week of this!

Swiss Blue

This is a scan from a medium format fujichrome transparency.

Spring in Switzerland a few years ago when the water took on a variety of different colours from this to a milky green. My father, brother & I enjoyed a meal in a fish restaurant overlooking the lake and I nipped out to make this image when the light briefly changed.

Time, Water, hills and sky provide an ever changing set of images whether in the UK Lake District, a Med beach or in Switzerland and no one can ever say they have captured everything these places have to offer... I read someone saying that they went to a national park made famous by AA and found that he had been everywhere and taken all the images... all I can say is did AA photograph absolutely everything from every angle under every lighting condition ~ I doubt it.

Drinking Water - The other Mediterranean

Drink ~ Take 2

How much do we take it for granted that we just simply turn on the tap and clean drinking water flows out in abundance.



North Africa. The stench was unbearable and you couldn't move out of its reach. Sheep, sewage and rubbish shared the 'river' just before it flowed into the Mediterranean where men were fishing from the shore. This was a place of waiting where people came for a chance to get into Europe.



Some new 'building' was in progress but so was a massive corrugated iron shanty town; even the old 'fort' on the beach had a temporary neighbour.

Yet even here the people are fortunate compared with some of those further down into Africa.

Back in 'Europe' (Spanish Africa) I met a man in his 20s from Zimbabwe, all his family had apparently been killed or died. Having walked up from Southern Africa and crossed the border illegally he was now waiting the six months to see whether he would be given a permit to travel.

This was not an easy place to make photographs with a very large camera, but I could go back to my European hotel where there was fresh water!

Thematic photograph 40 - Drink

Carmi has selected the subject 'Drink' for this week's thematic photograph

The occasional drink at a pub, sometimes a glass or can of beer or Guinness at home in the evening, wine with special meals... and well Christmas ... I consider myself to be a socially responsible drinker. Yet where we live (England) there are continual problems over alcoholic drink and the inability to legislate effectively for its supply and use. Some roads and areas have become alcohol free zones while others are allowed to have it to excess. Empties are a continual problem ~ with the mentality of why recycle when there is no large ie £5 say $10 deposit per container ~ so is the sight of those who have drunk to excess. Supermarkets sell cheap alcohol, kids wait around trying to find an adult to buy it for them... So my contribution on the images of drink are mixed.

...In the UK they used to advertise Guinness, a dark Irish stout, with the slogan 'Guinness is good for you' and give it to expectant mums because of the iron it contained. Gill and I both like our Guinness so here is one (almost) ... and btw she is not!!


.
..the empties problem... by the canal





...and empty glasses following a meal...




And for something different... Gill & I were in an old French hilltop village about 60 milers from the Mediterranean. We turned a corner into a small square and came upon the village fountain ~ originally for drinking and probably the only source of water in the village ~ but what made this different was the little fairy-like girl with amazing red hair leaning over to touch the water. It was one of those timeless moments... the light was negligible, evening and we were waiting for a storm, the only camera was my wife's small digital one, so three quick images bracing the camera as well as I could and only one successful picture which is slightly blurred. [Yes I have removed a twentieth century sign and the girl was wearing sandals which is another debate earlier in my blog under the title 'Girl at the Fountain' . This image has had the colours partly reduced.]

Thematic Photograph 39 - Transparent - Take 2

Carmi has had many posts on the subject 'transparent'... have a look at them...

Today I went into Manchester city centre on a photographic jaunt with a friend and kept the concept of 'transparent' in my mind. We have had much redevelopment here and transparent images hit you from all sides since glass has replaced brick and stone as the favoured exterior surface. Forget the polarising filter as I like the idea of having both reflections and transparency.

Here is part of one such example: Transparent Working




I can only imagine that working there you must sometimes feel like a goldfish in a an old fashioned glass goldfish bowl.

Here is the second example... Transparent Living



I know that I could not live like this in an open window for all to see. Could you?

Thematic Photograph 39 - Transparent

Carmi is his blog extols us this week to examine the subject 'transparent'...

So with lateral thinking I soon arrived at politicians, an ex one in particular and thought about a montage with some of his errors / disasters showing through his face... but realised this would be too big a challenge...

...Then 'trans-parent' (others have done this before with a split portrait combining both sets of ancestors in one face) so back to the drawing board...

Think conventionally...no.. that's not me...but until I take something specifically for the week how about this:...

...The notices were intended to be read through the transparent plastic coverings, but urban artists have had other ideas. So now only some of the important information remains 'see through'... while the remainder surrenders to 'K'...





So who was 'K'?
Are you intrigued; ... and what about the hidden notices: ... why were they there? ...What did they say? ...What is private? ...Why university? What ground...And why have they not been made visible again?

I suppose one could say it is a transparent act of vandalism ... but a short distance away was a monstrosity of a building that the graffiti artists had significantly improved ~ nothing transparent here - but wait a minute transparent also means 'obvious' and that really is one thing you can say about the graffiti building...

Thematic photographic 38 - Winter

Check for details of this subject under the theme 'winter' and join in if you feel able...

I thought again about this subject - winter - and the images it conjures up: greyness, rain (here at least) cold and then I thought further ~ sometimes we have those exceptional winter days when there is a clarity in the air, no wind and the sky is a wonderful blue...

...or goes pink as the sun sets...

...and finally the aftermath... the canal had been frozen over for some time and numerous objects had been thrown onto the ice just to see if they would break it...the ice began to melt and some of these items sank, adding to the debris on the bottom. But not this crutch... it remained suspended - timeless - forlorn and painful even though released from winter.

So how did it get there?

Had they, whoever they were, ceased using it and brought it along to chuck across the ice?

Had they miraculously been healed whilst hobbling along the towpath and thrown it away in a moment of joy?

Had someone mugged them and thought it amusing to skim it over the ice?

Was it one of a pair, and if so, then where is the other one?

Questions but no answers...

Color or black and white

Yes I have looked at the Edward Weston school of fruit and vegetable photography and no I am not up to his standard but it does not preclude me trying.

I am pleased with the black and white (B&W) image ... but has the colour worked:

~ No IMHO....

Why?

Because I see EW's images in black and white and although others have used colour, exotic images of fruit should of course be black and white....

Some - no many years ago I heard a photographer explaining how he had been commissioned to take photographs of some ~ well lets call it industrial transport to save embarrassment. The brief was simple B&W images of the item plus two workmen outside each of their factories so hire a car arrange itinerary take photographs process and deliver finished prints... job done client pleased with results. ... by the way did you happen to take any in colour.... no you just asked for B&W. ... Yes our mistake we realised we should also have asked for colour as well so could you go and take them in colour...hire car ...arrange itinerary ...take photographs etc... apocryphal well I heard it first hand from the photographer along with the clients name and the industrial item.

In those days 'industrial' photographs were B&W - only... and... and this may be apocryphal.... the head of my photographic school renowned for his B&W images and assistants arriving by large van a couple of days before to set up the megawatts of lighting, arrived to take the two photographs (process one first and alter development on the second if necessary) . When he had taken them he was very timidly asked if he would mind terribly also taking the image in colour. Request rejected ~ probably along the lines that there were other people could take snapshots if they wanted some .... Yes B&W was serious stuff and colour was for your Kodak Retinette or Instamatics.

So what about this image of a Stygian pond in the woods...

The water was black, well almost but not photographically black and I tried for an impressionist type image:

Well impressionism was colour ... so would this have worked in black and white. I did not think so at the time but a recent file conversion makes me wonder...


If only they had had access to digital photography when I was a college!

A Different Perspective: The World is a Pattern

Sometimes you just need a different perspective.

It was easier then... hire a plane and tell the pilot where to go... and as long as you kept to 1000 or was it 1500 feet over towns you were OK.

Now ?

Selective Views

My view of a city is different to yours. This city was sad.

I have come from a different place
....................with a different background,
......................................a different viewpoint
.............................................and possibly a different agenda.



What was my agenda?

Could I have arrived with the idea of showing 'Vibrant and colourful Xxxxxx 'or 'New Xxxxxx 'instead of 'Depressing Xxxxxx with its poverty, oppression, dilapidation and fear'?

The factory, the street, and the canal were not the sum total of Xxxxxx, so is it fair only to have these representing it.?

In presenting these images am I pushing my emotions on you?

Where does nostalgia come in (these are not current images) to take over from my selective documentary?

Politicians' Buildings

Forgive me Lord I have not been political.

In The Bard's day calling someone a politician was an insult of the type that may well have involved meeting the recipient with their companion at dawn the following morning... a possible translation being 'a dirty evil schemer'. I will leave you to consider the appropriateness for today?



Utilitarian 60s buildings - remember the stories... Just done a land deal lets put this up and when we have finished decide whether it will be an office block, flats, school or university - no takers - oh well its a car park for the moment. So lets reduce it to its plain form by contrast and produce an almost abstract image... then we can pretend it is not there.


It is your error - not mine. An example...

Sometimes IMHO buildings are where they should not be (and not where they should be ~ sounds like the words from the old Anglican service...) so please look at them differently...


A road to nowhere except up into the valleys on foot or motorbike. How close are the houses together ~ count the chimney pots. Let's close the ...... it is not profitable today, for a few hours...

Someone lived and worked here....

.............................Another way of living but I would have found it very difficult ...


...as I would this. Who would want to pay the odd half a million for one of the 18, I think, stacked summertime goldfish bowls, even though they are on the beach. Who would want the awful family with crying sunburnt children resting against your glass panels for their eight hours mandatory occupation until dinner. Winter may be better, but I would have preferred the original bungalow or house that these replaced.

The trouble is the area is/was one of the most expensive in the world and the stomping ground for undesirables, 'wannabe important people' and the retired or not so retired villains (whether caught and convicted or just should have been). ...

So ....free the villeins and give them these apartments ....and the motor yachts. Convict the criminals.... no not the youngsters with alcopops.... or those cycling on the promenade: but those: involved with serious crime who have been living on the proceeds and those whose greed is so unacceptable that society needs to do something about it.

If society does not... how long before the best beaches become privatised ...and most people are excluded?

Yes strong feelings... so how have they come out photographically speaking.

I have taken this in the style of the Brand and Hild Becher and cropped it in the camera (the sea is good for cropping images since it defines your angle of view if you have no wish to be up to your waist in water with a large format camera). The building has lost most of its location. It could be somewhere on the east coast, say near Newcastle (sorry Newcastle) and no longer in superrichmansland.

Taken or Made

Sometimes an image is waiting for you to stumble across it, everything has arrived at exactly the right time and all you have to do is press the shutter ...well a bit more than that but you get the drift.

This was the case with images 1-3.

1 Yes I realise the river had flooded as I was getting wet. I was looking for images, but not expecting to find three cheerful ladies who look like they had been auditioning for Last of the Summer Wine, shoes discarded sitting on the bench. As for the leader posing on the back like a fourteen year old... They had no chance with a Nikon F, but then they seemed quite please to be my subject, unlike Mr KGB man earlier who looked like his meet had been interrupted, first by the river and then the photographer.

2 Early evening, arriving at the trattoria by vaporetto and there they were patiently waiting for me. A 6x12 is not a fast camera to operate, centre filter on, lens hood, use hand held meter and transfer to camera, judge and set distance, cock shutter, take image. They waited patiently. Oblivious. Thank you, especially for arranging yourselves as you did.














3 Perhaps it was the only place he could get a signal.... Sometimes you are drawn to a place or view and another element creeps in and translates it into something out of the ordinary. Yes it does look as if it was commissioned for an advert for 'Our network has 99.99% coverage of the UK', but it also speaks in more worthwhile ways ...Peace... solitude... harmony... nature beauty...

On other occasions you work hard and bring the components together ~ images 4 & 5



















4 Preconceived. Collect friend who will model for college assignment on 'boots'... 90 miles to Dover... day crossing on hovercraft to France... train journeys... find suitable train to suggest that these boots are what you wear when travelling across Europe, images made have meal back to Dover... 90 miles... return friend.














5 Working with identified subject ...College project...Travel to Wales and sleep in car. Find colliery railway leading to pit that is being dismantled... hitch ride on train... meet railway workers... persuade one formally pose for me ... move to appropriate place... take image (and many others at location) ... how did we get back to the car???

Crossing Borders

WW2 finished later round here... it was really nowhere important... just a few houses

A hire car... park up and make some images... the house(s) are a bit dilapidated and worthy of more attention... but it was the (and here I show my botanical ignorance) blossom on the tree that caught my attention... almost too perfect...weighed down and hanging over the road...

So whoever planted it there or was it just a wind blown seed?


We all have mopeds in our rooms don't we? Yes I can remember taking a scooter engine to bits in our hall but there is just something sombre about this one. Probably beyond repair, as is the house.



And why is there only one piece of wallpaper left? Who is going to pull that inviting piece?

A motorbike stands for freedom ~ a long way down and Easy Rider ~ it should not end its days framed as if in a picture by the window.

Rose Tinted Nostalgia

I think we can safely say that these are now a documentary record of past places or practices.
What history would you understand if these were the only images left from the 1970s?

1 - 3 are the Thames at London, 4 the railway going up to the then disused colliery at Maesteg and 5 near Leeds

Do you see progress or just a difference?
So who will archive all the images taken today on mobile phones and P&S digital cameras?
Is there any point?
Who will search through them in fifty years time?
How many thousand negatives do you have?
What will happen to the history they contain?

Dividing Lines 1

About two miles apart.

About two thousand years ago... the Romans forded it.

About a thousand years ago ... a dividing line separating two ecclesiastical areas as towns had not been built.

Today ... a place of leisure and tranquility... where bridges abound and only cows have to ford on their way to milking

I could never be a fisherman... but I could watch the river... and be in its presence...

A place to return to and no longer a dividing line.