A Dogs Tale

 

Image by the RSPCA

After my last post, three or so weeks ago, talking about the increasingly blurring lines between what we regard as real or AI fake photographs, another image made an appearance in the news that was questioned over its authenticity. The above image of these beautiful dogs is, sadly, real.

It was taken by an RSPCA officer, during a dog rescue of 250 poodle-cross dogs crammed in a living room. The image does have a good ending as most of the dogs have been rehomed, with a few with the Dog's Trust needing some extra looking after, but the image initially did come under scrutiny. 

I can slightly understand why it was doubted. It's not often that you'd get that many dogs in one photograph! A few years ago, though, there would have been no question of whether it was real or not. Maybe the way we can easily create and view AI generated images is starting to have a bigger influence on the way we see all images. 

So a sad and very real photo but a good outcome for the dogs. The only slightly worrying thing is that we may be heading in the direction where every photograph is judged fake until proved otherwise.

The Authenticity War

 

This headline, along with the powerful image, got my attention last week. I guess it was meant to. It turned out that the schoolgirl graveyard image was real, although a number of sources incorrectly said it was not. Is it real or AI? has become an increasingly frequent question when viewing an image. I just fear that the lines blend too much so we start not knowing which is fake and which is real!

AI arrived and it seems the development pace of the technology has ramped up  a notch or three. The skill level and equipment requirements to create a faked image have dropped substantially leaving us with a great resource that can, and is, heavily abused. Creating a fake narrative has never been easier. What would have taken hours with Photoshop thirty years ago is now done with a click or swipe.

We are at a crossroads when it comes to how images are created and used. There have probably been other images before the one of the schoolgirl graveyard that have raised questions but it does seem that AI images have reached new levels of technical quality.

Just recently some very authentic looking images of US actress Zendaya marrying fellow actor Tom Holland had many people fooled. The quality of the fakes was impressive. The disclaimer "artistic recreation" contained in a caption with the images was missed by many viewers.

We appear to have a perfect storm. What is real seems increasingly irrelevant to media and politicians, emotional content draws more hits than factual, and we are attention spans are narrowing. News moves at lightspeed these days with rolling news behaving much like a social media stream.

So what to do about it? Personally I think the genie is out of the bottle and the only real defence is educating people about how to spot a fake. Maybe we start in schools, but certainly we need the skills for critically viewing media to be taught, so that people can at least try and work out what they are looking at, and why someone wants them to see that information.

Martin Parr 1952- 2025

New Brighton, England, 1983–85 From The Last Resort © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

The news of the death of Martin Parr brought back some of my memories of photography discussions had a college and university back in the 1990s. No other photographer seemed to polarise a group of student photographers more than Martin Parr. As the years have gone by it seems that controversial aspect of his work has remained part of his photography's story, even though my own thoughts about Parr's work, especially The Last Resort, have mellowed.

No photographer has, probably, captured an era as well as Parr. The Last Resort images have the style and feel that shout out the eighties. Bold, colourful, stark and uncompassionate, Parr's images perfectly captured the best and worst of the eighties, but have been misunderstood as politically sympathetic to the Thatcher politics of the time. There was, and still is, an element of discomfort when viewing his images with questions continuing to persist about how he regarded his subject matter. The Last Resort, and the controversy around it, did Parr's career little harm and significantly boosted awareness of his photography to a wider audience. 

I first came across Martin Parr's name whilst reading a review of The Last Resort book in a photography magazine around the mid 1980s. The other photographer whose book was being reviewed was Chris Killip 'In Flagrante'. Two very different books, from two very different photographers, but both contained work taking a long look at what was happening in the north of England in the 1980s. By the time i arrived in photography education in the early 1990s, Martin Parr was a byword for contemporary colour documentary photography.

My opinion of Parr's work has always been 'on the move'. It's never been as straightforward as viewing other photographers work. Maybe that was part of Parr's appeal. I've always admired some of his photography, mostly his black and white work from the 1970s, but certain colour images, especially those in The Last Resort and The Cost of Living, well I've always had some reservations. I would have loved for Martin to have been a guest lecturer at my college, and to hear the discussion afterwards.

Martin Parr was certainly one the most influential British photographer of the past forty years, but I suspect he may also go down as one of the most misunderstood.

The Whisky Line

 

Class 108 DMU leaving Keith Town station, Moray, Scotland

The trip to Scotland in September ended up being a mixed bag of experiences. No fault of Scotland's, it turned out that I would end up in the second week gradually feeling worse and worse as a rather nasty dose of flu took hold. The steady stream of photographs I'd usually take suddenly reduced to a trickle.

One highlight early on in week one, however, was a trip on the Keith and Dufftown Railway, also known as  the Whisky Line, a heritage railway in Scotland, running for 11 miles (18 km) from Keith Town, Keith to Dufftown.  It is the most northerly heritage railway operating in the British Isles and well worth a visit.

Salgado's Legacy

Kuwait oil fields, 1991, by Sebastião Salgado. Photograph: Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado died last week at the age of 81. Another photography hero gone. His photography was the very high quality benchmark that I have never managed to quite attain but always strived for. Salgado's superb blend of beautiful photography and getting to the heart of the subject matter place him right at the top of documentary photographers. He had critics with the term “aesthete of misery" used against him, and his departure from Magnum in 1994 seemed to cause some animosity too. Often it seemed to be a reaction against his success as a photographer.

I'm not going to cover Sebastião Salgado's life and work here. Other bloggers and news websites have done a far better job than I could ever do at summing up his long career. However, for a student photographer in the 1990s, it was just inspiring to see a documentary photographer producing such epic work. With over 30 books published (two or three are on my bookshelf and I'd have bought more if I'd had the money) it was always a visual treat and an education going through the images on the pages. In many respects Salgado had the successful documentary photographer career that we all wanted.

If you aren't familiar with Sebastião Salgado's work then check out some of the links in this post but especially have a look HERE for a great collection of his iconic images.

The word legend is used far too often these days, but Sebastião was a legend in every sense of the word. Another legend lost.

Formula One at 75

If you are a Formula One fan then the BBC and Getty Images have put together a great collection of Formula One photography going through 75 years of the sport.

From Juan Manuel Fangio through to Lewis Hamilton, the page is a great introduction to the history of Formula One as well as a fascinating read for any F1 fan.

Check out F1 at 75 by visiting the link below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/v7yykmbyey/f1-at-75-by-bbc-sport-and-getty-images

The Gathering Clouds

A dark sky over Old Boat Sheds - Lindisfarne, Northumberland

Last week I got a message to say that my Tumblr blog had reached the grand old age of thirteen years old. I have to admit the number seemed slightly surreal as I looked at it. Then again, this blog will be even older soon with the blog becoming eighteen years old at the end of February. All of my blogs have benefited from relatively calm and save foundations to build on by the blogging platforms. As we've seen recently though, change might come down the line at any time from the large digital overlords in future years. When it comes to the blogs I like to think that I will have the time and options to move them somewhere save if needed. That's what I hope at least.

The same can't be said about social media though. The recent revelations about changes to fact checking at Facebook, Instagram and Threads (USA only at the moment but still worrying) have made me consider my future social media yet again. The last time was when Twitter started changing into the monster that it is now, some eighteen months ago. I made the decision to deactivate the last of my Twitter accounts in November. With some fourteen years of use, over 3000 followers and a once great source of photography news, all a distant memory long before I hit the kill button, I'm just wondering if I'll have to do the same with Instagram and Threads.

In the end, it's about investment. Our time, effort and content. We store our lives on these platforms only for something or someone to move the goalposts years down the line; a change of owner or leadership, economic instability, politics, terms of service etc. Something always changes. Maybe the calculation from Meta etc is that people won't leave these platforms when they are too invested. People live their lives - good and bad - through these social media platforms, not to mention make money as businesses. Too many posts. Too much history. Too established. Leaving is just out of the question! 

Personally I am no longer willing to invest that kind of time and effort into another new social media platform. Back in August 2023, I wrote on the Darker Skies blog my thoughts about Twitter and the changes that were taking place there at the time. Nearly two years later and I'm still of the same mind. My conclusion was that the blog or website should be where I focus my efforts rather than invest too much in a platform that will eventually become too toxic to stay. I still agree with that conclusion. For now I just intend to keep a close eye on things, see what happens and make a decision as and when. That's all I can really do.

An Early Start

 

Old Boat Shed on Lindisfarne, Northumberland - December 2024

Another year started and hopefully it will be a good one. Two photo book releases are planned, one at the start of the year and then another around November. That's the plan I intend sticking to at least.

The end of the year went quite well. A trip up to Northumberland for a week around the middle of November saw a good bit of of photography taking place. Even though the weather was rather windy, the quality of light more than made up for the gusts. You just had to keep the camera as steady as possible and not wave the lens about too much.

The visit Holy Island of Lindisfarne was a nice surprise. A quick drive down revealed that the tide was at its lowest point meaning it was safe to visit without being cut off by the tide. There had been no plans to visit. It just happened. The last time I'd visited Holy Island it was the summer of 1992 and I was 20 years. A student photographer trying to find his creative path.

What would he have thought of the older photographer wandering around the old boat sheds? Horrified probably, though impressed with the camera and lenses. As for advice, I'd just tell him to be more confident. Easy to say, maybe not so easy to be.

The Last Days of Summer

 

A home on the Kintyre Coast, Scotland - September 2023

Not long left now. Almost the end of the summer. It's been a summer of consolidation for me this year. Not much in the way of travel but plenty of progress made on a number of projects that I've wanted to tick off my to-do list for years. There are just one or two things left to do before the year ends.

The website has seen the bulk of the work as I catch up with adding projects to the gallery. The Northumberland and Isle of Arran/Kintyre galleries were added last week completing the process of updating that area of the website. It's the first time I've been all caught up in some time.

As we head into Autumn/Fall the next project is to finish a photo zine I've been working on for some time. The photographs and layouts are done so only the text remains. If I can sort that out and get the zine out for before the end of 2024, I'll be happy.

So not too bad, and it means that I'm in a good place to start next year.

The Ragpicker's Dream

 

'Spain, Valencia, 1952, Robert and Mary Frank' By Elliott Erwitt

Back in November of last year, I posted about the OMD album cover for their brilliant 1980 album Organisation which featured the wonderful photograph shot by Richard Nutt of the cloud-covered peak of Marsco in the Red Cuillin mountains, on the Isle of Skye.

I'm posting again with another album cover image from Mark Knopfler's 2002 album The Ragpicker's Dream. I've been a fan of this album for several years and recognised the Elliott Erwitt image from a book by the photographer I picked up in Norfolk many years ago.

The photograph still had the power to surprise me though. It's only recently that I've found out the image contains the presence of two great photographers. Elliot Erwitt, behind the camera, and Robert Frank who is dancing in the photograph with his wife Mary.

Three years after this photograph was taken, Swiss photographer Robert Frank went on a journey through the United States that would later form his iconic 'The Americans' book.  The project is highly regarded as a classic piece of documentary photography.

Ironically the other book I was looking at before purchasing Elliott Erwitt's in that bookshop in Holt, Norfolk was... yep, Robert Frank's 'The Americans'. Why didn't I get it? Cost. It was very expensive!

Eleven Pictures

 

American troops land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. June 6, 1944.  Photograph by Robert Capa

Eighty years ago Allied forces waded ashore on the Normandy coast and started the liberation of Europe. Quite a few photographers accompanied the armada across the Channel, but the D-Day photographs that get talked about most usually belong to a certain Robert Capa.

During my years at college studying photography, the images came up quite a few times. Given that the images are iconic I was often surprised by the critical reaction from my fellow students and even the occasional lecturer. It often appears fashionable to criticise iconic or popular images to some extent, but the critics just missed the point. It usually ended in rather a good debate though.

The eleven Capa photographs from Omaha Beach certainly captured the moment. The images were taken during the second wave landing by the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.  From a personal point of view, I prefer Capa's later images during the Allies' fight through Normandy including the image of prisoners 

In recent years there has been further close examination of the images and the story behind the photographs. One thing is certain. The stories surrounding the making of the photographs just make Capa's images more intriguing.

Just a Number

 

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!

Feeding the Photography

 

Small Field on the Isle of Skye, Scotland - 2015

The last few weeks have seen me search for new sources of photography news after significantly reducing my use of social media these past couple of years. With the removal of Twitter (X) from my day-to-day life, I suddenly realised that I was feeling rather cut off from photography news. No news. No new photography. No sources of information at all. It suddenly dawned on me that needed to do something about that. 

A couple of weeks ago I found an old OPML export file in a Dropbox folder, made in late 2013. The file contained a list of all of the websites and blogs that I followed starting after 2007.  I have to be honest. I wasn't sure if the file would work or if the RSS feeds listed were still active! As it turned out, around 80% of the feeds were either no longer of interest, no longer active or had just disappeared completely. There was, however, a core of photography blogs that were still active.

The process of creating a new feed list has, though, been a great insight into the state of blogging in the world of podcasts and social media feeds. It certainly seems quieter but the dedicated blogger activity is still there. Several veteran blog names stood out on the RSS list, and to my amazement, these feeds were still active over a decade later. They may not post as often as they used to, but then that is probably to be expected.  

So far the new list seems to be working well. It needs building up a bit but the core feeds I'm interested in are there. If following these feeds also boosts my own blogging, I'll be happy with that too.

New Bert Hardy Exhibition

 

Photograph by Bert Hardy - The Gorbals Boys, 1948

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

Marsco Manoeuvres

It's been a week or two of veteran bands making a return to the spotlight. Even The Beatles released their final song which I actually thought was a wonderful finale and liked a lot. The band I want to talk about though is Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark who are currently in the album charts with a new album Bauhaus Staircase. Well, more accurately, I want to talk about the excellent image on the cover of their 1980 album Organisation. An album that I've enjoyed listening to for more than forty years.

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!

Linda's Memorial Garden

 

Sometimes we judge things before we actually get to see them. I did that many years ago with the photography by Linda McCartney. I blame naïve youthful ignorance and also the massive Beatle hype bubble that will go on existing until the end of music.

I never was a big fan of the Fab Four. Age has made me more tolerant and open to their music but I always preferred other sixties bands. The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and other big rock acts. I've always tended to avoid things that are too popular. I can do pop as long as it isn't too big or hyped.

In 1998, I came across a great photography book called Linda McCartney's Sixties. Looking through I was surprised and impressed by Linda's documentary style of portraiture and the subject matter also appealed. As Linda Eastman, she had photographed some of the biggest acts of the 1960's. She was friends with many of the acts and especially liked Jim Morrison of the Doors. 

I knew that Linda had a memorial garden in Campbeltown. Both her and Paul had moved to the Mull of Kintyre after the end of the Beatles. The local community accepted them and years later, after Linda's death in 1998 decided to build a memorial garden complete with a bronze statue purchased by Paul.

Sadly I only managed a brief visit but the peace and tranquillity of the place could be felt. My stay was unfortunately interrupted by a couple of women chatting and having a cigarette. I'll hopefully return to Campbeltown again at some point and I'll definitely be soaking up that beautiful, colourful and quiet place that is Linda's garden again.

Old Haunts

 

Claymore Swords - Edinburgh Castle, 2015

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.

Changing Track

 

Maersk shipping container on the WCML rail route - November 2015

It's been a long time since i posted on this blog, but what goes around comes around and the blog isn't closed quite yet.

I've posted on my Darker Skies blog about the changes to Twitter (or X as it's magnificently called now) and how the blogs will benefit from that decline. I'm fed up of social media and have been for some time. The honeymoon is over for me at least.

My plan is to use my blogs much more from now on. Last year this blog published NO new posts for the first time since it launched in 2007. That needs to change.

So keep an eye on the blog for new posts coming over the next few weeks and months. It's time to get back to the blogging :)

Wet Film U2

No not the band but the high altitude aircraft that has been in service for over 60 years with the U.S military.

Probably the most fascinating part of this documentary (around 17.30 mins) regards the cameras and photography used to capture the recon photos. Even with the leaps in digital technology, the U2 cameras shot film in 2019. Probably still do.

An interesting watch.

A History Of Cameras In Space

Spotted this great video by Scott Manley on YouTube that looks at the history of cameras in space. 

Scott's video does go into some detail about the modifications made to the cameras and the later models by Hasselblad and Nikon specially created for use in space.

Well worth a watch.