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).
Patterns, shapes and textures at low tide at Drigg Beach, Cumbria; there’s a suggestion of the infinite revealed here in the space between the land and the sea and the clouds.
Wasdale and Eskdale in the same image, this is the view over the estuary of the River Irt from Drigg Dunes to the western valleys with Scafell (984 m.) and Gable (899 m.) at the heads of the valleys, The Old Man of Coniston (803 m.) behind.
Notably different architecture in Sartène, Corsica from mainland France or indeed any of the other bits of off-shore France that I’ve seen. The Genoese style prevails in buildings from before the Battle of Ponte Novu (1769). The shutters in the Italian style and the iron balconies persist after the defeat but French architecture becomes fashionable with the new government, including versions of the Haussmann style.
Some views of the southern part of Corsica; my trip took me from Porto-Vechio to Ajaccio via the Col de Bavella (1217 m.) and the Alta Roca region. Corsica is mostly granite geology which looks quite different to UK granite topography, sometimes reminding me of Yosemite Valley in California.
The charming sight of a game of cricket played at Fitz Park, Keswick to the background of some of England’s highest mountains.
The match between Keswick CC and Wigton CC is still undecided as the shadows lengthen. Wigton won by 11 runs, but the players’ calls remind me (particularly with the commemorations this week of the Normandy Landings) of Henry Newbolt’s bitter poem about an earlier war.
“Vitaï Lampada”
There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night—
Ten to make and the match to win—
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote
“Play up! play up! and play the game!”
