Walking east along Beach Parade at Worthing I noticed an extraordinary block of flats that had undulating terraces that looked like waves. This building is next door to the Splashpoint Leisure Centre; I think the flats are part of the Bayside Apartments. If you turn the picture 45 degrees anti-clockwise you can see what I photographed. Taking the blue sky away I replaced the space with the vaulted roof of Westminster Abbey, you can see the curves at the bottom. This is the Gothic Nave, the tallest in England. The collage really started with the coat hangers. I found them on a mobile frame in the cloakroom/toilet facilities in Apsley House neat Park Lane. A beautiful mansion with lots of priceless works of art….and I photograph some coat hangers! It took a long time to isolate them from the white wall behind them. I tilted them on purpose. I also turned the picture to black and white because there wasn’t that much colour in the subjects originally. I think the purpose of the picture is the fluidity.. Abstract? …I couldn’t determine what category this image fitted.
Structured 2
I visited Portsmouth for the first time with my sister Anne and brother-in-law Chris who is a Pompey Boy. We walked along the city wall on the east side of the harbour at a place called Hotwalls. Going up a stairwell we got to the roof of the Round Tower. The viewing platform has seating that looks over the mouth of the harbour. This photo is of those steps and railings that struck me as visually arresting; the shadows cast and opposing lines of composition. At the top with the handrail, I cut away the original background with a view to putting something else on the skyline. I came across a photograph I had of a warehouse being built. The skeleton of the girders and safety rails fitted perfectly. This was here in Norwich at the Cathedral Retail Park on Barn Rd. I applied a filter to give the picture a gritty look. Why? .. I just liked the look! I love this picture because I feel it is a good example of my soul ambition to create what I see and wish to express. I also love this because I spent a wonderful time with my sister and brother-in-law. X
View With A Room
The room is a small summerhouse, raised on stilts that overlooks an ornate garden at Hunworth Hall. The French doors and windows open up to a long rectangular lily pond, surrounded by a beautifully laid out topiary garden. But being perverse, I replaced the sumptuous view with a moving walkway at Heathrow airport. I saw this between terminals 2 and 3, and it was empty!… a golden opportunity to photograph it. I removed the emergency stop button that was on a ‘stalk’ in the middle of the two lanes near to the camera. I introduced the clear glass globes (employed by fortune tellers) that I had photographed on my light box. I naturally turned the ball upside down (law of optical physics) (?) and sized the duplicates appropriately. I do wonder if the viewer would/could appreciate how much time it took to eventually achieve the result they see. Note to self. Shut up whinging.zzz
Untitled No.65
This is a collage of three different buildings along the River Wensum in Norwich. At the bottom are some railings of a zigzag path for wheelchairs which goes down to the Norwich Combined Court Centre. This is accessed from Whitefriars near the bridge. Next is Dragonfly House on Gilers Way. I liked the shadows cast by the slatted roof above the entrance. At the top is the newly built Halls of Residence on Duke St. by the bridge. I turned the image a quarter clockwise to enhance the composition. I should have titled this ‘A Tale Of Three Bridges’, since Dragonfly House overlooks a curved pedestrian walkway.
Aluminium Beautiful
I noticed the two principal items on the same page (amongst other images), on my computer screen, so I combined them. Obviously the tail fin of the English Electric Lightning fighter jet isn’t bigger than the grain silo. After isolating both images from their inherent backgrounds, I looked for something to combine them. I came the close-up of a fuselage body of an aeroplane from the same Aviation Museum as the Lighting. This provided a sympathetic background. I invented a couple of extra riveted cover panels to enhance the composition. I tilted the tail fin to create some dynamism. The title was a flippant afterthought. Do you think my description is a bit pretentious? After reading what I have written….hmmm I think so. Nice picture though. I was happy with it, otherwise I wouldn’t be displaying it. Nice.
At The End Of The Day
Sat in the pub one day, I noticed a couple who were sitting adjacent to me. They were remarkable and looked dramatic, because of the light cast on them from the large window behind them. I asked if I could photograph them because they looked so Caravaggio-esque. ( I subsequently found out it was Mr. Paul Howard and his wife). After isolating them in the computer I experimented with background/situations. I came across a photo I had of my nephew Tom (giving me the finger!) standing on some rocks at a beach near Margaret River. He was silhouetted against the evening sky. I ‘moved’ him across to the left a bit, to give the composition some balance. I replaced the sky with a photograph I took, on my visit to the beautiful Isle Of Skye. These three elements seemed to segue very easily and I was very happy with the result.
Untitled No.64
The main object in this picture is the back hoe boom/dipper arm of a JCB digger. I photographed it at the Royal Norfolk Show ‘24. I just liked the configuration. There was a handrail/guard in the bottom left of the photograph (cut off by the photo frame). I decided to extend the canvas further to the left, and copied the tubular section and create three more rails, as you can see. Encapsulated in the structure is a metal (probably low grade silver) cast figurine of an Apsara which I bought in Phnom Penh market. This is representation of a dancing Buddhist ‘angel’. As a background I introduced a translucent canopy roof at Bawdeswell Garden Centre. I have inverted the image which gave the picture more ‘dynamism’. Lastly I created a silhouette of the Apsara, to appear as a shadow over the roof.
Wave
This image started with the ornate picture frame that was on a wall in the local pub, being illuminated (right to left) by a large window. The frame contained a whimsical illustration and caption. I soon got rid of that! Searching through my library, I came across the photo of the beach on Lady Musgrave Island. This was named after the colonial governors (Sir Anthony – 1828-1888) wife who used to visit it to have picnics. I propped the frame against the dead trees at the water’s edge. I then put a photograph in the empty space I had of my hand reflected in the wing mirror as I was driving in Australia (?) I decided to isolate my hand and put another photo of the beach further along. This gave the allusion of a mirror, albeit with an outsized hand!
Empty Dreams
This photo was taken in the bedroom of a house I rented on Heigham Street. The bed was in a lighthouse in Kingston, Western Australia. It was being displayed in the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse on Marine Parade. Now a museum, it was decommissioned and brought offshore to stand on the beach road. l liked the nightgown spread on the patchwork quilt. I have of course, stretched the bed flat against the wall. I can’t remember where the angel came from. Written on the rails of the door (the cross panels)is the short poem; You Can Like Me, But Not Love Me, Because My, Dreams Are Empty. That was about a woman I knew whose granddaughter said how her dreams were empty. The woman and I were just friends, it never went any further……The words might not be too discernible because the picture is only a thumbnail representation. This is an old picture (2013) that I have slightly edited.
White And Grey
The structure you see is a tubular frame to support a PVC cable tensioned translucent membrane roof (phew!). It is a canopy/shade with the hexagonal lightwell, made in Germany by Novem. It protects the passengers at Norwich Bus Station. I’ve just kept the frame. The crisscross pattern you can see is the bird netting below the tubular support (stops the bird droppings!). The background is a tarpaulin that covered the stacked tables and chairs, outside a restaurant on St. Benedict’s St. This was arrived at after a lot of experimenting to introduce a background that was innocuous and neutral, to offset the sculptural and dynamic frame.