This is a view of St. Peters church on the Holt road, near Corpusty. It is set on a ridge and has a panoramic view down to the River Bure valley and beyond to the north. I was attracted to the ploughed field in front, especially the way the sun was catching the furrows. I took quite a few photos from different angles, and settled for this one. I extended the canvas above the horizon and inserted a different photograph of a cloud shot from my library. The ‘seeds’ are of different bushes and plants in my mothers garden. I cropped the images in a circular aspect and gave them depth and shadow. Of course they are repeated and sized differently. When one walks and casts seed in a field, it’s known as broadcasting.
Medium: Reworked digital photograph
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Apothecary Carboys
I saw these two ornate glass stoppered vases in the bay window of a shop in Sheringham. These carboys, filled with coloured water, were the ‘trade sign’ of the old fashioned chemists. In the picture you can see how they sat in each corner, the yellow vase is apparent in the main shot. I took some photographs of the yellow jar too; isolated and placed it next to the red one. I bent the background through the vase to suit the refraction. Also in the collage is the central walkway in the new covered market in Yarmouth. One can see the pattern of white oblongs of sunlight from the roof above. I have reduced its opacity to blend in with the composition. I used a filter on the carboys and introduced the ‘sparks’ of sunlight.
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Untitled No.77
This is a jigsaw montage of the outside walls of the Belgium Monk restaurant/bar. The exterior of the premises had been scraped in preparation for the application of rendering and decoration. I took photographs of different parts of the building. I collaged, juggled and rearranged the shots together, and cut bits away (for artistic license). I applied a drop shadow to accentuate the composition, and saturated the colours. After moving the elements around, I settled for this result.
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Jericho
I was drawn to the configuration of the seawall defence/rampart at the entrance to Cromer Pier. This concrete and steel structure gives access to the beach below from the Promenade, which fronts the pier. Above it in the picture are the tops of a circus marquee tent that was being erected at the Norfolk Showground. The two features seemed to fit. I filled the sky with a photo from Yarmouth. I always take photographs if I think the sky is interesting. Lastly, to create some interest, I introduced a young girl who was playing a Sousaphone (She had her mobile phone set up on her music sheet holder) at the Lord Mayors Procession. She was participating in a marching band. In the collage, she is twice her size in relation to her environment. I applied a couple of filters to give a surreal effect. The title came last without really thinking about it!
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Coo, Look What The Tide Washed Up
The setting is an entrance plaza to the Venetian Waterways And Boating Lake. The steps lead down to the manmade canals, which has a cafe/restaurant on an ‘island’ in its centre. Built in 1926-28 as an unemployment relief initiative, it was fully restored in 2019. I have cut away the park which was beyond the steps unseen. I inserted the water and sky that I photographed at Hunstanton, I liked the blue horizon and the cloud stratification. I mirrored that with the horizontal metal strips that were photographed at another entrance to the lake, and montaged them to the bottom of the picture. I placed the coloured marker buoys (Sheringham) in the entrance and purposely magnified their size. I included the boat which is relatively smaller to the buoys and the setting. the boat was on a muddy embankment in Blakeney harbour. Finally, to complete the composition, I included a second set of buoys.
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Tangled Up In Black And White
I discovered these abandoned studio chairs (five in number) at the back of some offices in Queens Rd. Yarmouth; looked like they were having a meeting! I took some photographs and eventually cut them out. I had the idea of introducing lots of wires in the composition. Why? I don’t know, but I pursued the idea because I remembered some particular photos I had taken at a transport museum. I couldn’t find those images, but came across some other ‘wire’ shots. These were from a picture I’d done called ‘Lines In The Countryside, Wires In My Head’ – ( crayzee title, crayzee image!). The three overhead railway cable photos were the left over workings from the project, half finished. So I finished them, and arranged them accordingly. The chairs have of course been duplicated, sized , re-arranged and placed in the final collage. I kept the the sky stark white because I think it creates a strong and conflicting visual impact.
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Grille Melt
Great Yarmouth held a ‘Wheels Festival’ on the seafront which is an annual extravaganza. Enthusiasts display their classic cars which include the typical American flashy, tail-fin monsters. The cars are all lined up by their proud owners for the public to inspect and admire. I took a lot of photos, concentrating on the front of the vehicles full on, but only the grille, lights and bonnet (hood). I stacked the results, as you can see. I had to slightly distort some of the cars to fit in together. I then had the idea of ‘dripping’ the images individually, using a filter in photoshop, and was delighted by the result. I created the shadows underneath each car.
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Garment Rail
The Lord Mayors Procession happens every year and proceeds through the city. A lot of roads are blocked off for the route. It was at the bottom end of Exchange St. that I came upon these suited display mannequins. They were strung across the road to take advantage of the closure. They belonged to Leadenhall Tailoring who were taking advantage of the opportunity to advertise. I took some photographs and preferred the shots with the sun shining down the street and their backs to me. I have placed them on a disused wooden quay from Port Augusta in Southern Australia. The rail tracks were obviously for cranes and trains in the port operations. I have also overlayed a lattice frame modelling mannequin, stretched and semi transparent which I had used in another picture (see ‘Lattice Girl’). I sized and re-arranged the display mannequins and applied couple of filters. I liked the ‘converging’ composition.
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Red Yellow And Green
I usually take a healthy long walk from Wells-Next-The-Sea harbour to the Lifeboat station. There is a straight path on a raised embankment, which used to be a light railway track. The view looks out over the salt marshes and running alongside the East Fleet river.The estuary flows out to the North Sea via Big Gap, flanked by East Hills dunes. I admired the landscape and light that was presented. I perversely considered putting a giant bucket and spade in the picture. When I got to West Sands beach, low and behold, there was the bucket and spade (right colour!) with the extra yellow spade, which I photographed in-situ. I wanted something else in the composition. I remembered the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal memorial at Mundesley. The very tall vertically placed bomb is next to the lookout station (QAVS) overlooking the beach. I placed it in the background at an angle (right colour!) to complete the picture and confuse the viewer…. I applied a filter for effect.