Untitled No.73
Swirling (Swans)
Walking along the seafront at Yarmouth on the North Coast Path, there are some cafes that have closed for the end of the season. One of them was the Beach Terrace Tea Rooms. Like most of them, the business’s sell buckets and spades etc. I noticed by the Tea Rooms bins a discarded display frame looking sculptural. Made of thin white metal hoops and horizontal rods, it was a tiered frame for which (I thought) was designed to stack beachballs, one on top of another, about 120cm tall. I wish I could show you the original photograph….but hope you get the idea, badly explained! I isolated the background and looked for something incongruous to place it against. I immediately came across the photo I took of some swans by the Rushcutters Pub. I cropped the image and put the frame on top and started distorting and squashing it (the frame). I duplicated the said frame and distorted that too. I reduced the opacity and applied a couple of filters to the swan picture. The result was quite startling ; I had no preconceived plan and suprised myself. Its in the Figurative category because I couldn’t think where else to place it.
Gone
This is a ‘poem’ I wrote late one night whilst being maudlin, reflecting on mortality and the futility of life; one minute you’re here, the next second you’ve gone. As if, in mid sentence there is no textbook beginning to end, and time to reflect with a satisfactory conclusion. Anyway….. I did think of a photograph I had taken which might suit the prose. It was on a beach in Dar-e-Salaam in Tanzania. The couple were looking out to sea and unaware of me. The shadow of the palm tree ‘made’ the picture. I was thinking about putting something on the horizon as a point of focus. I came up with the yacht which was on the River Mersey…in Devonport, Tasmania. I edited and revised the text and hopefully merge it into the image. I put the result through a filter to soften the scenario.
The Art Of Negotiating
On the South Quay in Yarmouth there are always boats that service the offshore gas industry. On one such boat, the Isle Of Jura working for HS Marine, had two telescopic boom cranes on its stern deck. I took a couple of shots of each; both were facing in opposite directions. The picture was a process of adding and/or subtracting different elements, and eventually arriving at a complimentary composition with a credible narrative. The rope was on the quayside. The fabricated girders were stacked in Lowestoft ready to be used. I distorted the girders ( bending a rigid stance) and coloured one of the cranes red (boxing parlance…”and in the red corner….”). It’s all very tenuous, but hey!…artistic licence.
Learning How To Fly
Walking around Valletta, I came upon a small demolition/building site. Enclosing it was a temporary fencing panel, on which hung an old blanket, serving as a make-shift debris screen. It was ripped in places and looked worse for wear. I thought it looked like an art installation, so I photographed it and didn’t think anymore about it. Fast forward a couple of years and seeing the photo again, I thought it could be used as an element in a collage. As usual, I tried a few things/situations and eventually came across the electricity pylon. Stretching and adjusting the blanket behind the the girders the picture suddenly took on the appearance of The Angel Of The North, by Anthony Gormley. A bit tenuous, but striking all the same. The landscape/background went through a lot of experimentation. As you can see, the result was quite fitting. It is the outside of the Roller Coaster on South Beach Parade, Yarmouth. What you see are the panels which enclose the framework superstructure of the undulating track, being prepared for a new coat of paint. I had the title in mind half way through the creative process.
A Language From The Past
Reading an article about the NATO phonetic alphabet which was introduced in 1956, I could only remember some of the designated call signs. I researched and found the complete list; some I had forgotten. I thought I’d create a montage with the words, and to make them interesting: different colours and typefaces. I arranged them onto a background which was/is the interior of a disused and run down shoe factory, why?..well it just looked fitting. I thought of introducing a giant telecommunications tower to give some narrative to the picture. That only made the image look like an overloaded and confusing mess. I eventually discarded the mast and put another photo collage on top (less opaque) which I thought gave the impression of a distant past.
Locomotive No.1
I visited the York Railway Museum and was very impressed with the space and exhibits displayed. I took lots of photos as you might expect, like this one of two that I took of the replica Locomotive No.1. Originally built in 1825 by George Stephenson for the Stockton And Darlington Railway, its considered to be the first commercial steam engine (travelling at 8 – 10 mph!). I cut away the background to reveal the complex rods and valves etc. I had recently photographed some fitted bed sheets drying on the washing line, which I thought looked interesting. I therefore hit on the idea of putting a montage of them , behind to create a dramatic and sympathetic backdrop….Steam clouds ..geddit? The funnel is out of shot , on the right hand side of the picture. I applied a filter to the engine to give a gritty look, and a filter to the sheets to soften and slightly blur them
Run Down Walk Up
As I was photographing the Acepella singing group, Fine City Chorus, I noticed the fire escape/stairs in a recess of a building opposite. I was at the Royal Norfolk Show 2025. The people on the stairs were judges (and a photographer), and they were going up to the first floor viewing room which overlooked the Grand Ring/Main Arena. I managed two photos, in which time the people were in different stages of ascent. I collaged the two images. I put the man and woman on the bottom step (they were in a different place), and merged them with the second photograph, which had the four at the top,…are you keeping up so far? The woman at the bottom is the same person proceeding through the door, top left. I wanted to change the brick wall behind them, so I cut that all away…a long job, and replaced it with the peeling paint (not to scale!) which features in another picture in Surreal – Pealing Paint. I applied a filter to soften the image. The title makes sense in the end!
Untitled No.72
The setting is a room in a run down and disused shoe factory in St. Marys Works. I liked the dishevelled look and the peeling paint. The floor was in a different room. I married the two together. I had previously photographed the crowd of holidaymakers in the pier at Cromer. I placed them in the room to look bizarre and out of place. I introduced the ‘bandstand’ performance platform to balance the picture. This was originally in the middle of a field at the Norfolk Show, and the performers are an Acepella group called the Fine City Chorus. Composed of gentlemen of a certain age, including my brother! Lastly, the old rusting steam engine was the defining item in the picture. I photographed this on the quayside at Murray Bridge in South Australia – I think its still there. I was looking for some seagulls to add, which I did, but then rejected, but I came across the rope, which fitted just perfectly! Truly surreal.