This picture (and its title) is absolutey weird, totally left field, but I love it. The swimmers are readying themselves for the beginning of a triathlon. Believe me, the buckets and shovels of a digger were not there! I like the dynamic of the image; from the top left to the bottom right. The title reminds me of someone who went for a lunchtime swim, at the public swimming pool, and described it akin to a motorway.
Evening Stars
The composition started with the paper illuminated stars hanging in the Reindeer public house. I liked them, so photographed them. I liked the candles arranged on the mantlepiece of a blocked off fireplace, in the back bar of the Plough P.H. I rearranged and added to, the stars, but kept the candles as they were presented. I used the line candles as a base for the image. The wonderful sunset was witnessed by some members of my family when we were in Australia. We had just buried my brother Barrie who had passed away, September 2018. We had a little picnic and a drink to watch the sun going down. Of course my brother was a STAR…I miss you X
Isolated Pockets
This took quite a while to do. Attracted by streetlights, normally taken for granted, I set about photographing the different designs, and the colours they emitted. The problem was that the light they produced, obscured the structure, and the photograph was unusable, (chromatic refraction); so I photographed them during the day, and added the light artificially, (you can tell, is it that obvious?). I took some time to think what I should do with them. Eventually I found a photo I had taken in Norway, and added a different skyline. I darkened the landscape to give some contrast to the lights. I liked the meandering road, which lent itself to the diminishing groups of streetlights. What is the collective noun for streetlights?
Untitled No. 32a
A bridge in Melbourne and a heater-skelter in a kids playground, (from opposite angles). I like the symmetry that it creates. When I put an extension on the title, be it an ‘a’ or 2, it’s because I have put the original through a filter to ‘pep’ it up, but still have the former image. The filter in this case is the Paint Daubs.
Dumpster 2
Yes I know, we call them skips, and the yanks call them dumpsters, but I think it sounds better. These were sitting outside the business premises on a quiet Sunday afternoon…who is going to steal them? So, four different photos, collaged together and coloured up to number 11. I liked the rust and the form of such innocuous objects.
Motorcycle Skylight
The skylight and wall below is in the Norwich School Of Art, my Alma Mater. I was attending an end of year show, and was stunned to see how much the building has been refurbished. Kids today eh?… don’t know how good they’ve got it! Anyway.. the Harley Davidson, which was parked up outside the Micawbers Tavern, looked good in the sunshine. And there it remained, stretched in the skylight until I came back to the picture a few months later, and added the handlebar photograph. This was a scooter that was asking to be captured. The sun direction complimented the existent image, so I included the collage. The mirrors of course, reflected me, so I grafted a photograph from my Australian trip and invented the sun.
Game, Set And Mismatch
An empty tennis hard court, in Eaton Park. I liked the different shades of green, and the white lines. There are five different photos amalgamated here, in a way I thought created a striking image. The golf ball was a last minute thought (and covers an ugly meeting of edges behind it!). The title then became apparent.
Digging A Hole
‘Looses’ is an antique emporium on Magdelen St. It is an old department store, and has two floors packed with everything imaginable. Outside on the pavement, there are articles displayed, some of which were these spades, shovels, forks and hoes. They were of course leaned upright, so I took a few photographs. I cut them away from their immediate backgrounds. Behind them is a quarry just outside Norwich. I was surprised and very happy with the result.
Untitled No.35
There are lots of beach huts along the Cromer promenade. They are all decorated lovingly by their owners, and all very unique to one another. I liked this one because of the rust from the nails seeping down, and embedded into the paint. I have isolated a fuel filter(?) from the exposed engine of one of the many tractors, that are used to push and pull the fishing boats, parked on the beach. The filter of course has been tilted on its side, for effect.
Stretch Those Strings
I think this picture strangely works. There is the cut away part of an electric guitar, keeping a switch and volume control, that I repositioned. A repaired manhole cover in a road that I came across, and a rearview side mirror, with its cover missing, that occupies the left side of the picture