Re-purposing

Bit of a project...

Bit of a project…

Been having a lot of thrilling thoughts recently about art, especially about photography, and realised I want to get my hands dirty with it once more and probably make this a main pastime.

and to start this I’m going on a project to re-purpose our garage/shed from being a general dumping ground into a place where I can make cyanotypes and store materials for other art projects such as lino printing and book making (and combining all three to make my own art books!)

One of the first jobs is to empty out a lot of the bits that are in the shed and have traveled around the various houses with us and are of no use anymore, and to sell some (if not all) of the old Games Workshop and other miniature things to raise some money for the art materials.

This domain I’ve had for years and done nothing with since I stopped designing and hosting website is going to be a project record page, could be as simple as a photograph of some new tools, a book review, but it will definitely be about showing off my work when it’s done.

If you want to keep up with the project why not click on the subscribe button in the sidebar or pop up?

Britain by the Sea

Britain by the Sea

Britain by the Sea

According to the Ordnance Survey, Coton in the Elms is the place that is furthest from the sea in Britain. 70 miles from the nearest coast, 45 miles from the nearest tidal water.

Access to our coast has become limited to those with their own vehicles, the public transport system in Britain has so eroded that access to most of the coastline is now impossible for those without a car.

As with most people I meet I have a hunger for the sea, to be near it, to hear the crash of the waves on a stormy day, to hear the susurration of waves on a pebble beach, to watch the gulls dip and wheel.

Britain has seemed defined by its relationship with the sea. Popular culture has seen many a television programme featuring our coastline and the sea, from Whaling Afloat and Ashore (1908) to The Blue Planet II (2017). Our heroes are seafarers; Sir Francis Drake, the sailors at Dunkirk, Captain Cook, they are often the mainstay of tubthumping nationalism and memories of Empire, but they are still there, deep in the nations psyche.

It is this passion and history I want to celebrate in this project, showing the coastline as I see it in various media; photography, video, prose, poetry, and others as they develop.

Breaking Out

Breaking Out

Breaking Out

I went for a walk around Edinburgh Botanical Gardens a few winters back and was caught by how many plants were trying to press through the glass of the hothouses, I don’t think I’ve really noticed that before.

It was cold and wet out, yet these hothouse plants didn’t want to be confined and wanted to grow as they would even though if they got out they would die.

This is a working title while I explore further.

Edgelands

Edgelands

Edgelands

“First coined by Marion Shoard, the term edgelands refers to those in-between spaces created by urbanisation where space for nature still persists alongside cities, towns, shopping centres, motorways, canals, and so on. These zones sit between urban and rural areas, and they also sit uneasily between the two categories of urban and rural, often defying an easy definition.”

Working in my usual areas of liminal spaces at the edge of towns this seemed like a natural extension of other projects that I’m working on, I will be working on these images (and newer images) to choose which I want to use to represent this idea, book and exhibition.

Traces

traces (swinging)

traces (swinging)

A ongoing project investigating the space that’s been left by the change in attitude to photographing children in public and looking at what’s been left behind.

Often involving found objects abandoned by the families these will stand in stead of what used to be one of the most photographed subjects by amateur and professional photographers alike.

An internalised taboo has come into force that stops photographers from feeling comfortable photographing children in the public sphere, even their own.

An image of predatory behaviour that is leaving a huge gap in the photographic record of social history.