Photography
My photography
I use photography to show something about where I’ve been or people whom I’ve met. As well as trying to see the beauty in a scene or situation, I’m also trying to convey ideas and feelings. My photography is about me and what I do, who I meet and where I go. All my photography tries to be contemporary and creative. I’m resistant to being fitted in to a taxonomy by categorisation such as “travel” or “conceptual” or “nature”. All image-making is political simply by the act of selection and hence exclusion but I am not campaigning for any particular point of view, except to try to see the positives and to live life to the full.
I use 645, 35mm and DX formats plus a handy little digital compact that shoots RAW files. I’ve experimented with non-lens photography - do ask!
I first worked in a monochrome/silver wet darkroom at age 7, helping my Father with scientific prints; I’ve used colour negative materials since age 21 and digital since 2005. I use Photoshop (Adobe) and Photopaint (Corel).
Seagull crusing over Marseille in a dramtic dawn - the birds roost near the shore, they clearly enjoy cruising the thermals over the city on their way inland to forage.
Cityscape of the hospitals, medical university and administration buildings in La Timone district of Marseille. The architecture favoured for these buildings - the colours, geometry and patterns - indicates in concrete the way the French state views the evolution of its medical service from the classic Provençal village, typified by the nineteenth century tiles cast by hand, through the modern tiles and on to the poured concrete of the larger buildings behind. This Provence village of the 21st century retains the apparently haphazard juxtaposition of a number of styles, shapes and textures of the rural predecessors.
Crane jib left in shot as a deliberate element in the composition
Skyscrapers and tower blocks of flats seen across the shining metal rails leading to Clapham Junction railway station, “Britain’s busiest railway station”. Waterloo has more passengers arriving or leaving on trains than Clapham Junction but Clapham has the most trains moving through it. Either way, most passengers are usually too busy changing trains to appreciate this magnificent view up the rails to London city.
The famous view of the St. Pauls and the City of London from Richmond Park. This line of sight is protected both by the foresters of the Royal Park and the planning authorities. Photographing it this afternoon I have tried for a classic painterly landscape “look”, the highlight on St. Pauls is serendipitous and the colours of the woods as they are, no filters; it would be possible to paint out the gate and the skyscaper but so far I have chosen not to. The story of the view is that King Henry VIII was looking to see a rocket fired from the Tower of London along this sightline, the signal would indicate that Anne Boleyn had been executed for treason.
Thanks to Joe for pointing out that King Henry was watching in 1536, before the Fire of London (1666) and before construction started on this St. Pauls (1675).
One of the piers at Keswick for the launches and boats on Derwent Water in Cumbria. It’s raining - as in much of the UK today - so only the gulls are around. No big idea behind this image but I find it a pleasing composition. It’s also another rain picture, not usually the most promising conditions for light or subject but freely available at this time of the year and another strategy to move on from landscape pictures with a “conventional aesthetic”, ie pretty. Note the rich colours of the timber and the texture of the water surface dappled by the rain.
See also Lowgill Viaduct
