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).
Snap of two of the CrossRail Tunnel Boring Machines parked between Paddington and Royal Oak. The TBMs will bore the tunnels for London's new CrossRail line. They are huge machines, dwarfing the concrete mixer lorry in front; behind the front plate there is a production line to remove the spoil and line the tunnel. Crossrail will link Paddington with Canary Wharf via Farringdon and is due to open for service in 2017. Crossrail's 21km of new twin-bore tunnels are first major new railway tunnels under London since the Jubilee Line.
Just a little snow in London, hardly enough to cover the garden and not enough for snowball fights in the streets; but quite enough to cause long delays on the M25 and to slow down the tube and Heathrow.
3½ miles run, jog and walk around London's Battersea Park with a field of 13,000 entrants from over 300 companies. Just over 5.5km. Although it's the taking part that matters so the time is not the thing, of course it is, particularly in a field of highly competitive corporate employees! That said, my official time was 34 mins 42 secs.
Interesting technique challenge to run with my camera and take pictures on the hoof.
I've a birthday coming up so I enjoyed a finisher's swig of Cava, kindly provided by my employer.
(Group photo of my colleagues deliberately blurred to respect confidentiality)
Cours Julien, Marseille thinks of itself as the “Creative Quarter” of Marseille. There are several colleges plus numerous small bars and restaurants around the fountains (that are hardly ever running). The graffiti is agit prop art more than tag and usually the politics of opposition and revolution. People socialise at lunchtime and at the end of the working day. A place for a quiet dinner for two, lost in the crowd or for a game of cards.
This last Saturday the band Success played a free concert in Cours Julien: here are some photos. The rival attraction, that Eurovision Song Contest in a spectacular staging from Düsseldorf, seemed to hold its audience until the French performance, then the crowds came out for the local event, which was just starting.
