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).
I’ve always thought Richmond Park would look better with a herd of triceratops grazing the grass rather than just deer and some Brontosauruses in the ponds but maybe carnivorous theropod dinosaurs would be going too far for a park which is open to the public. Now the National Trust are trying this out in nearby Osterley Park, far from being the Trust’s latest strategy for crowd control, it will be an almost certain crowd-puller once the Jurassic Live exhibits have been fully installed in the park around Osterley House. Having seen the skeleton and some of the videos of animations, the surprise was just how really massive that jaw and teeth are, as well as how the animal is at least half the height of a good-sized tree. But is it responsible parenting to settle for a family picnic within tail bashing range of a formidable carnivore like Tyrannosaurus Rex?
Cranes building the new development over the railway line on the boundary between at Earls Court, Brompton and Hammersmith in West London. This crane, massive even by London crane standards, is the solution adopted to spread the load to avoid damage during construction to the rail lines of the Overground, District and Piccadilly lines underneath.
This picture’s about awe, the huge size of the steel engineering being used to construct this new “village” within the urban environment.
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.
