Monday 15 July 2024
The Ragpicker's Dream
Thursday 6 June 2024
Eleven Pictures
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American troops land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. June 6, 1944. Photograph by Robert Capa |
Monday 27 May 2024
Just a Number
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Lost running shoe - Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk - 2016 There is a moment when you suddenly realise that your photography has aged. Those images you printed up in the darkroom, ah it seems like just yesterday, are in fact suddenly 25 years old. The very age you were when to took the photographs. It's a sobering thought. Moments stay with you. I wrote on my main website blog about a personal important photography milestone over thirty years ago. The photograph was of the seafront at Colwyn Bay and it marked that moment when the camera and darkroom skills all came into line. I saw the image in my mind's eye and took the photograph using my camera and darkroom abilities. I still have that 10x8 black and white print framed on the wall. Since then, many photographs have been produced, trailing behind like a ship's wake. I can divide the images into eras. The 1990s were the black-and-white film years, the 2000s were a roughly even mix of black-and-white and colour, and the 2010s were like the previous decade but with digital colour gaining dominance and mobile photography added. The jury is still out about the 2020s. I think what I'd like to do in this 'era' is return to shooting a little bit of film. Probably not on the scale of twenty years ago, but a few rolls of HP5 or FP4 film through the F3 or F5 would feel good. As for the photographs getting older, you just have the nostalgic moment and carry on with the journey. After all, the age is just a number! |
Sunday 17 March 2024
Feeding the Photography
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Small Field on the Isle of Skye, Scotland - 2015 |
Saturday 24 February 2024
New Bert Hardy Exhibition
You can't really talk about British documentary photography during the mid-20th century without talking about Bert Hardy. So it's fantastic to see that The Photographers' Gallery in London is having a long overdue retrospective of his work.
I first came across Bert Hardy's name during the early 1990s when I managed to buy the fantastic book 'Great Photographers of World War II' by Chris Boot. Along with the usual names like George Rodger and Robert Capa, the book also looked at the work and lives of some of the lesser-known combat photographers including Bert Hardy.
Hardy had been working for the Picture Post when he got called up and it was where he returned to after the end of the war. He stayed at the Picture Post until 1957 when the photojournalistic magazine closed due to falling sales caused by the arrival of television and other factors.
The photographer moved to being an advertising photographer due to the lack of work opportunities for photojournalists but by 1964 had left the industry completely to become a farmer. His images though have become iconic with the day-to-day life of people in post-war Britain probably among the best images shot during that period.
The Bert Hardy retrospective will be on at The Photographers' Gallery in London from 23 February 2024 - 02 June 2024.
Details about the exhibition, opening times, etc can be found HERE
Saturday 11 November 2023
Marsco Manoeuvres
The album cover (designed by graphic designer Peter Saville) for Organisation remains one of my favourites. Never has an image visually better summed up the album's dark and moody sonic landscape and yet for years, I had no idea where the photograph had been taken. It turned out that I'd actually visited and never known the connection! It is only thanks to the internet that I now know where it is - the photograph was shot by Richard Nutt and is of the cloud-covered peak of Marsco in the Red Cuillin mountains, on the Isle of Skye.
A quick search online and sadly Richard Nutt doesn't seem to have much of a presence, although it turns out there are plenty of other Richards producing landscape work - myself included! Did the photograph have an influence on my photography? I think most definitely although probably at a more subconscious level than other photography sources. I've always had a soft spot for dark moody landscape photography. Maybe this image is where that all started.
My next visit to Skye will definitely include a visit to see Marsco... and maybe take a photo in homage to the OMD Organisation cover image. Now there is a creative challenge!
Sunday 15 October 2023
Linda's Memorial Garden
Tuesday 5 September 2023
Old Haunts
It's been catch-up time over the past few days regarding the blog. A tweak or two to the design and a new background and the site is ready for another few years.
Looking back through the old posts was a strange experience. It was like reading an old diary and seeing a glimpse of a previous life. So much has changed for me in the years since this blog started.
The level of enthusiasm for posting can be seen by the total number of posts for each year. The peak was 2007, closely followed by 2008. I do not intend to get back to those levels, but I would like to post at least once a week if possible.
Finally, I would like to apologise for an issue I came across this weekend. As I checked through the various areas of the blog I clicked on the comment section and noticed 34 comments awaiting moderation. I'd received no notification or emails to say that a comment was waiting.
All of the comments have now been published on the website and I would especially like to thank those people who left some feedback about the Billingham bags and Michele Breton posts that I posted some years ago now. I also received some wonderful comments about the blog. Sorry, it took so long to add these to the site. I will check regularly from now on.
Hopefully, I can get the old blog back to something like its old self from a few years ago.