A window seat on my way to Australia. I couldn’t help taking a few photos of the wing, which I thought looked very sculptural and magnificent. I wasn’t sure what to do with the image. Trying different scenarios, I had another picture that I was working on, but had come to a dead end. That picture became ‘Work In Progress’, which I finalised later. In the meantime I looked at the shadow photos I had. They were of a lattice stud-work frame of a house that my sister-in-law was having built. I liked the pattern cast on the concrete floor. The shadow contrasted with the angular wing. I filled the silhouette with clouds, and set it on a flat blue background. Perfect!
Collision
Walking in West Earlham, I came across this shattered bike. It was still attached to one of the two tubular rings which serve as stands for bicycles to be locked and secured to. Obviously car had mounted the kerb at speed and ploughed into them. The first stand got flattened and the unfortunate bike took a hit. I noticed the wheels were missing, and the hoops looked like substitutes. I thought it was a very unusual scene, . . So . Click! After isolating the bike and stands, I created new background with lots of green spots of various shades and sizes. Then I swirled the result which looked apt. Experimenting further, I sharpened the image, which distorted the colours and produced red tints. This looked like blood or a continuation of the bikes movement, which gives the picture a dramatic twist.
The Sky Is Closed Today
I always take a camera with me and photograph anything that grabs my attention. I can guarantee that every twenty photos I take, one might be used in one of my pictures, however insignificant. Here is a good example; a gate padlocked to the entrance of a piece of overgrown wasteland. I liked the flaked painted gate, with another rusted ‘sunrise’ configured gate behind. I cut away the spaces between and considered what to put behind. The sky became the working result, but was a bit boring. Then I came up with the semi- transparent bubble which I created from scratch. I duplicated the original and sized the copies. This is something that came out of nowhere, and I was exhilarated by the result because of the journey I experienced, and the sense of achievement achieved ,….the title followed….reminding me of a time my sister-in-law and I travelled a few miles to have lunch at a certain restaurant, only to be confronted with a barrier and a sign reading “We are closed today”, without it being apparent which day.
Untitled No.58.2
There is a pedestrian passage running from St.Stephens St. to Malthouse Lane. I liked the perspective it presented, so I took a photograph. In reality it is quite narrow, so I’ve stretched it wider. Instead of the normal view of St.Stephens at the end (boring), I replaced it with the column of a flyover, seen from the Undercliff Walk on Marina Way in Brighton. I have, of course, tilted the image to give the picture its dynamic. Behind that is the blue facade of flats above the Silver Slipper arcade on Marine Parade in Yarmouth. I added some more windows. The focal point is an antique French shower unit, that I saw in the window of Stiffkey Bathrooms on St.Giles St. Lastly, I enlarged the manhole cover and moved it to the left, to balance the picture.
Looks Like Rain
Looking up from Cromer beach, one can see the railings of a footpath that runs along the top of the cliff. I liked the signposts and the street lamp. I took a few photos, waiting for walkers to appear in the shots. I ended up using three different photographs and melded them into one – i.e. the two people on the left, and the couple in the middle. As for the lights, I duplicated the principle one and put the sized copy down in the bottom right. I also ‘turned them on’ because it was the middle of the day when I was there. The ominous clouds are my unmade bed of a duvet and rumpled sheets, coloured purple and swirled a bit more for effect.
They Walked From Yarmouth
I took my Mum to visit my sister and brother-in-law, who live in Haywards Heath. We went for a day trip to Brighton (I’ve never been before) and had a walk from Hove along the seafront. I took some photos of course, just like the one of the man who was stood on the seat/plinth, to take some shots of the burnt down pier. The family group were walking on the wet sands by Yarmouth pier. I took the photograph from above the beach. I liked the reflections they cast. The two boys with the sticks were in another shot, so I isolated and added them to lead the group. The boys are obviously in the group, so I changed the colour of their tops. The sky in the Brighton picture wasn’t conducive to the wet sand reflections, so I changed it for a photo of a lake somewhere in Australia to give it a gritty look.
Still Air
I found the domestic electric fan dumped by the side of Dolphin Bridge on the River Wensum. It had obviously been dredged from the bottom, because it was covered in mud and rotting vegetation. I pulled the weeds away, placed it on the parapet of the bridge and photographed it. The gas tower is a collage of two that stand on Admiralty Rd. in Yarmouth. I liked the wall in the background because it had been rendered with a comb like scraper, and some of the plaster had fallen off. All these aspects, as usual, came together and rearranged without any objective idea in the beginning.
Self Shadow On A Stairwell 2
Standing at the top of the pedestrian underpass, at the roundabout on St.Stephens, I was struck by my elongated shadow, looking down the steps. On the same day I noticed the shadow cast by a fire escape at Anchor Quay, off Westwick St. I removed the tiles from the underpass wall as it descends, but left the green handrail. You can see the tiles in my shadow. The two images work well together, creating a symmetry, which flows through the picture. My self portrait is irrelevant. This is me being me, taking pictures of a world I try to understand , and create something that I wish that makes sense. Pretentious and contrived ?? …probably.
Going Nowhere In Particular
The roundabout street furniture, is on White Lady Lane, off the Sprowston Road. It looks as though it belongs on a busy motorway, but is on a quiet residential street. I thought it to be a very striking object. I didn’t know what to do with it. I was thinking of putting it in the middle of nowhere, when I remembered the sugar fields in Queensland, especially outside Bunderberg. One photo was perfect, and of course I had an another photo of the roundabout marker, from a different angle, which I flipped around to add to the conceit.
Another Lovelorn Godforsaken Dream
Sometimes I will trawl through my ‘library’ of photos, and might pick out an interesting image. Then I might see another picture that has nothing in common, with the first; and move on. Two or three more might grab my attention, then I start to experiment and compose some semblance of a narrative, introducing or discarding the components, as I go on. This is a good example of something that came out of such a process. The amphitheatre is at the University, the lion is on the steps of City Hall, and the other object,.. at the top right of the image is part of a wheel assembly of a train. The title came out of the blue. Perhaps I wasn’t in a good mood (?)