I pretended to take a photo of Simon (the Chef), but he hid behind the book he was reading. Interestingly he presented the text pages, and not the front and back covers, as one might expect. I asked him to hold that pose, and rushed to get my camera for the real shot. He refused to recreate the pose, so I asked him to photograph me, assuming the same attitude. He can cook, but he can’t take a photo (ha ha). The result was blurred and out of focus. So… I got my mother to photograph me a couple of days later. I experimented with some scenarios, until I happily settled for a warehouse I photographed in Australia. I included a photo I had of some sparks (isolated) that were being given off by an industrial grinder. I thought that it gave the picture some magic and movement.
Building A Liferaft
This is Pieter, who is a skilled carpenter and builder, and works at Wiveton Hall. As you might guess, he is Dutch because he wears handmade clogs and eats lots of cheese (ha ha). He was making a cupboard door for the newly refurbished gift shop. I was helping (?) him at the time. Pieter was outside and peering to see if the horizontal bracing plank was aligned. To me he looked as though he was surf boarding! The actual surf was a photo of the water taken looking down from Cromer Pier, and the planks of wood were here in Norwich at the new development at St.James Quay. I turned the water green to reflect the painted wood.
That Spaceship Feeling
The printing press belonged to Edvard Munch and can be be seen in the Munchmuseet in Oslo. Munch was of course famous for his painting and subsequent prints ‘The Scream’; the prints were produced on this press. The picture is set in an Orangery, but I cannot remember which grand house in Norfolk this was, Felbrigg? What I did was to photograph the room from either end (it only had one side of windows, with a bare wall on the opposing side), and joined the two aspects together. I cut out the window panes, to reveal a Norfolk landscape behind. The blue sky was also added. The title was inspired by the star shape component (the pressure roller arm?) of the lithographic press.
Electric Block
I noticed the different coloured glass insulators on a power line near my brother’s house in Joondalup. They had obviously(?) been replaced through time, but with unmatched types that were in stock. The background was a block of flats in Perth W.A. that were illuminated by the sun in way that was dramatic. This of course is a photo that is unrelated to the principal subject. I have filled the blue sky in the original photo of the flats, with the same colour of the building, which is probably not apparent to you. I have distorted the pylon to slant with the rake of the building and enhance the composition. I think the result makes for a very strong and energetic picture.
Concrete Slabs
Walking on the parapet footpath along the Yarmouth beach, one goes under the Britannia Pier. The path slopes up to the Anchor Gardens. The serrated concrete pad (to give pedestrians some grip on the incline) was illuminated by the low lying sun, and worth a photograph. I had a vision, of using the image and contrasting it with a thin blue horizon at the top. One thing led to another, and I finally ended up with this picture which evolved from that simple idea.
James Brett
I took this photo of James as I was leaving the pub. It was the first time I met him. I hope I can say, we went on to be good friends. The legend reads; ‘Some Old Bloke Sitting In A Pub Smoking A Cigar Whilst Reading The Obituaries In The Paper By The Window Holding On To His Glass Of Red Wine At A Table By The Door’. The pub was Micawbers Tavern on Pottergate in 2005. I came up with the idea of describing the scene, and wrote it in one take. Extraordinary picture, extraordinary guy.
Curved
I came across the dramatic shadow being cast by the public seating in Lowestoft, that was overlooking the beach below. I think it was Victorian because of its style. To set the bench against an unusual backdrop, I eventually settled on the beachside promenade in Yarmouth. I am always contrary, and thought by turning the image upside down, it would create a dynamic narrative. I turned up the colour saturation to offset the monochrome seat and shadow. The last thing I did was to put the flared reflection on the armrest.
Crash Chrome Yellow
Whilst eating my sandwich on a bench outside the Yarmouth Council building, I noticed a section of pedestrian protective railings at a road crossing. It looked as if quite a few vehicles had crashed into it! There were two sections, both badly mangled. What was most interesting, was the shadow they cast, like a mirror image due to the bright sunlight. I photographed the two lengths separately, with a view to stitching them together in the computer, but found it difficult, so I just used one. I created the shadow artificially. Just along the road (South DenesRd.) it is an industrial area dealing with the gas fields offshore. In one manufacturing compound was a very large fabricated structure painted yellow. I suppose it was a frame made of box steel. There were gaps through the frame which I have filled in with a flat yellow plane.
In The Hot Seat
Another concoction of disparate items assembled together, which strangely become compatible (eh?). In the background is the vent exhaust and fuselage of a Harrier VTOL jet that is exhibited at the City of Norwich Aviation Museum in Horsham St. Faiths, near the airport. I added the clip fasteners from a mobile cafe that was closed and secured for the night. I can’t remember where I found the discarded chair, but I liked it because of its broken strut (I added the splintering), and how it had been used for spray painting something, hence the blue circle. Imagine sitting in the chair whilst the Harrier was taking off..(geddit?).
Untitled No.55
This is a closeup photograph of an aeroplane from the Aviation Museum at Norwich Airport. It is an Avro RJ85, and the striking thing about the four engined commercial aircraft, was the empty engine housings. They had obviously removed the engines (for spares?), before donating the plane for exhibition. I eventually tilted the wing and had it flying through a corridor of oil storage units, on Main Cross Rd. in Yarmouth – as you do…To complete the composition, I have added the tail plane section of the same airplane.