A holiday snap and how Henry Miller hit the nail on the head…

‘Now and then, in wandering through the streets, suddenly one comes awake, perceives with a strange exultation that he is moving through an absolutely fresh slice of reality.’

The above quote is from ‘The Eye of Paris’, an essay on the work of the photographer, Brassai written by one of my favourite authors, Henry Miller. In my opinion it is one of the very best pieces of writing on photography and I very much recommend taking a look at it. The quote is significant to me because it defines a phenomenon that I occasionally experience when I’m out and about with my camera: the sudden urge to stop and look for a reason not altogether apparent at the time, perhaps subconsciously driven, as if my mind – far quicker at ‘seeing’ than my eyes – had gently tapped me on my shoulder and whispered, ‘look’.

During the four weeks or so I spent in Cleethorpes this year (my hometown – I’m returning for good next summer} I must have walked along Humber Street many times, yet never felt the need to record it as a photograph, save this one instance. And the compulsion to do so was exactly as I’ve described above. The light was constantly changing as fast moving cloud must have been passing over the setting sun and the scene before me appeared flat as I studied it. Once the sunlight broke through again there was a remarkable transformation. The resulting image only has to satisfy the way I felt at the time – the essence of stillness – and for me it does.

‘

Closure: ’35 Years On’ (Part 6 of 6)

When I undertook my ‘street’ portrait project in 1984, I never thought I would be tramping the streets of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire 35 years later, revisiting those I photographed…

On the 22nd August 2009 I received a message from someone I had met – for barely an hour – 25 years previously:

‘WOW…I totally remember this! I just had my 40th birthday party in America (where I live) and had the actual picture out on display. Everyone LOVED it! I love it too!’

The message was from Lisa and the picture she was referring to is the one that heads this blog. I still have 27 of the original 36 prints I exhibited – simply mounted on card and fixed, in sixes, on large sheets of hardboard I had covered with blackboard paint – at Scunthorpe Museum in 1985. In 2009 I photographed the prints, posted them on facebook and through friends of friends the post reached a homepage in Wisconsin, USA.

I’ve moved around a lot and things get lost; five years ago I discovered the 53 rolls of film that comprised my portrait project – all in perfect condition – in a box of stuff stowed away in my brother’s garage. I felt more could be done and this current project is the result.

A somewhat warmer location than the 1984 one, if I remember correctly

Following her education, Lisa backpacked around Europe and Canada; she worked in a Greek bar and was a fruit picker in Beamsville, Ontario. (Interestingly, Beamsville lies between Lincoln and Grimsby – named after the Lincolnshire county town and the Lincolnshire port, must have seemed like home from home.)

Although Lisa studied jewellery and clothing at Grimsby Art College she works as a financial planner – quite a change of direction I thought – in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lisa has lived in the United States for 22 years now, having first gone over when her then partner got relocated from the UK. That relationship faltered and she now lives above the recording studios of her fiancé, Brad (in a rather splendid building I might add).

The new photographs were taken at the home of Lisa’s parents in Scunthorpe the day before she was due to fly back; because the original portrait was one of my favourites I had rearranged the start date of my project. I’m glad I did…

…oh, and Brad reminded me instantly of the singer/songwriter, Neil Young.

Bruce has always worked in the construction industry. He moved to south London in 1987, after Big Red Gun, a band he played bass for, split up. He auditioned with a couple of bands that didn’t really go anywhere, bought a house in Caterham, Surrey in 1990 and didn’t really play for a couple of years.

In 1994 Bruce started playing in a covers band and got to to know ‘some guys with whom I’m still good friends with and still play with to this day.’

‘Whilst playing with function bands The Stonebeats (60s tribute) , The Xscene , and Blondie tribute band, Plastic Letters l had the real pleasure of meeting and playing with a few people who feature in my record collection: Mathew Fischer from Procul Harum, Darren Mooney from Primal Scream and Dave Ruffy from The Ruts.’

Bruce moved back to Scunthorpe in 2006 and bought a couple of properties that he rents out. He is still involved in the local music scene and plays bass with Pointblank. He tells me that he also does ‘a fair bit of ‘depping’, still get the occasional call from the guys down south to cover a gig, always a good catch up.’

I was walking through Central Park, Scunthorpe when I crossed paths with Hayley all those years ago. She was with two friends – one of them was called Heather I recall – and I asked if I could take some photographs, promising not to hold them up for too long. The resulting shot is one of my favourites – though ostensibly nothing more than a snap – which has, for me, a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ and it is appropriate that I conclude my project with it.

Considering that briefest of encounters, when I met Hayley at her home recently it was like meeting an old friend. She is incredibly easy to chat to, laughs a lot and for the life of me I can’t remember what it was we talked about. She shares her home with her partner and her son and there is a feel of comfort about the place: I remember lots of cushions, fabric, furniture you sink into and interesting things on the walls.

…cushions, fabric, furniture you can sink into…

At some stage of her life so far, Hayley felt she needed a break and decided on a six week trip to visit her uncle in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This sojourn was to lead to a vastly extended stay in the States. After meeting up with a travelling companion, Hayley took off for the city and lived in both New York and New Jersey. After meeting a guy and marrying him she moved north and spent the following 10 years in Rhode Island.

Hayley is now back in her home town and seemed very settled to me. She works as a community mental health nurse and works for the NHS in the Memory Assessment and Therapy Service.

Closure: ’35 Years On’ (Part 4 of 6)

When I undertook my ‘street’ portrait project in 1984, I never thought I would be tramping the streets of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire 35 years later, revisiting those I photographed…

At the 1984 location Dave was accompanied by his girlfriend, Karen. Now separated, they had three children and are now grandparents. Not long after that photograph was made, Dave settled down in Oxford and worked in the car industry. He returned to his home town of Scunthorpe and became an upholsterer, a career he pursued for 17 years. For the past 11 years, Dave has been a caretaker for the largest housing provider in North Lincolnshire.

Dave’s passion for all things ‘punk’ has never diminished: he still goes to many concerts featuring the heroes of the late seventies and early eighties, manages – as a quick glance at his facebook page will show – to be photographed alongside many of them and is an avid collector of records and memorabilia. He is truly a fan.

He’s a thoroughly amiable guy – if I had to describe him now I’d say, ‘happy go lucky’. I chose to make his photograph in a room that housed a vast number of vinyl records, cds and other ‘collectibles’ from the punk era. Then I noticed the t-shirt; seems like his allegiance to his favourite band, the Damned, has not faltered throughout the years…

I always felt, remembering him in 1984 as the front man of a popular local band – Harry the Spider’s Coming Out Party – that Garry was something of an entrepreneur. Speaking to him in a Scunthorpe pub recently – he had made the trip down from his home in North Yorkshire – I believe he still has that air about him. Certainly, he has not lost that ‘gift of the gab’ he had back in the old days.

Garry’s first taste of employment was as a welder for British Steel at Scunthorpe. He then studied mechanical engineering at university and embarked upon a career in that field. He is currently the Commercial Director of an instrumentation company.

We never got round to talking about music so I guess his days as an excellent frontman were his ‘finest hours’. Married with three sons, Garry maintains a lifelong love of football.

Helen studied nursing at Nottingham, returned to the Scunthorpe area and continues to work in that field. Married with a daughter, Helen enjoys family life and travelling with her husband, Jon; they have both done many of the UK music festivals. Helen is a keen gardener and, during my visit to her home, I managed a tour of the beautiful garden she had cultivated.

Helen also enjoys the company of her dog and this relationship provided me with my photograph…

Many thanks go to those who agreed to take part in this project. 1984 photographs were made using a Mamiya 6×6 camera and the recent photographs were made using an Olympus OMD EM5 Mk II camera.

Closure: ’35 Years On’ (Part 3 of 6)

When I undertook my ‘street’ portrait project in 1984, I never thought I would be tramping the streets of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire 35 years later, revisiting those I photographed…

In 1984, Finch was a popular guy and he still is. He struck me as good humoured, with a realistic outlook on life. He gets on with stuff. Back in the day, Finch was a very active and innovative member of the local music scene; he still makes music and ascribes most of his meaningful friendships to it. His fond recollection of a popular local venue, the Crosby – now closed down – was particularly poignant, so much so that we went there and made some photographs.

Finch is a practical guy – a trait inherited, he says, from his father – and currently spends some of his spare time making improvements to his home; he tackles painting and decorating, plumbing and carpentry with a certain level of skill. He explained to me that all is done by himself, ‘out of necessity, really’. He was turning his attention to his loft space when I visited him so we took a look up there.

Finch (real name Kevin) currently works as a teaching assistant at a local school – he began his career in education as a school bus driver – and enjoys working with youngsters.

‘Where meaningful friendships were formed’: ‘Finch’ at the Crosby, Scunthorpe

In 1984, Sean was studying teaching at Nottingham. He was an early years teacher for a number of years – focussed eventually on special needs – before setting off to broaden his horizons at schools in Hungary, Kenya, Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.

Sean is well known for his part as bassist in a popular local band, Harry The Spider’s Coming Out Party – the name taken from an early 1980s advert for chocolate – which he formed with his brother, Garry. (Talking about this stirred some good memories for me as, when Sean left the band to study, I became the band’s lead guitarist.) They famously appeared at the first ‘Scunthorpe Free Rock’ concert; an all day annual event put on for free by the local council and which ran for four years. Music is very important to him still and he writes and records his own material.

Sean is currently teaching in Scunthorpe.

Kev made a special trip into Scunthorpe to meet me and, after reminiscing about the old days – he is an excellent bass player and played with a couple of Scunthorpe’s more successful bands back in the eighties – we adjourned to a multi-storey car park.

Kev had explained that he was a video cameraman and commercial photographer and that his work – making induction films for companies and shooting motorsport, amongst other things – was primarily based in the UK but had taken him occasionally to europe and the USA. The one thing that struck me as I turned my camera on him was that he bore a resemblance to the songwriter, Brian Wilson. To me only it seems, as he had never been told that before. I’m not certain I got anything like I wanted from my camera, but it was great to meet up with him after all those years. He did take a portrait of me – the best I’ve ever had done – with such technical skill that it left me breathless.

Remembering Simon was a member of a popular local band in 1984, I asked if he had kept up his guitar playing. His response was that he had tried his hand at being a disc jockey and that the experience had ‘tarnished his love of music’. I move on to current interests and discover that he enjoys travelling and is a keen photographer. Then there is: Bridge.

I didn’t know that so many books had been written on Bridge – a popular card game of which I know little about, save that the four players involved are assigned the major compass points – but Simon has a lot of them; hundreds it seemed, glancing at a loaded bookcase. He has, in collaboration with another Bridge expert, designed another language of bidding (I was quite lost at this point, but impressed) called ‘Punk Precision’. Fair play to him. He has played Bridge at county level for both Wiltshire and Lincolnshire and likes to be assigned North or East.

Simon lives in a part of Scunthorpe much developed since the eighties – indeed, I could hardly recognise it – and enjoys family life. He is a draughtsman, a career he embarked upon 40 years ago and which he still pursues.

Many thanks go to those who agreed to take part in this project. 1984 photographs were made using a Mamiya 6×6 camera and the recent photographs were made using an Olympus OMD EM5 Mk II camera.

Closure: ’35 Years On’ (Part 2 of 6)

When I undertook my ‘street’ portrait in 1984, I never thought I would be tramping the streets of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire 35 years later, revisiting those I photographed…

Paul – who enjoys family life – says he has spent the majority of the past 35 years ‘mostly bothering my wife’ who he met in South London in 1987 and with whom he has three children. Paul began a career in the electrical industry as an apprentice at the steelworks in Scunthorpe and is now Sales Director for a long-established electrical firm.

Paul is a percussionist who has ‘never not had a drumkit’ and he still plays regularly with a popular local band. In his spare time, Paul enjoys restoring classic motorbikes from the 70s and 80s. He works voluntarily for the Forge Project – a charity offering support for homeless and vulnerable people – in Scunthorpe, is a qualified football referee and took part in the Great North Run – the largest half marathon in the world which runs from Newcastle to South Shields and which attracts over 50,000 participants – over 10 succesive years. He admits that now his knees are ‘bolloxed’ he has to take his exercise a little easier.

‘I haven’t moved and I’ve done nowt’ was Scott’s initial response when I asked him what he’d been doing since 1984. From our conversation, however, he is clearly a settled and home-loving chap who is a career laboratory technician. He currently works for a Swedish mining company.

Since 1984 Sue has led a well-travelled life; she spent around 7 years in Amsterdam before busking her way through France, Portugal and Spain – where she tried her hand at fire juggling – living and working as she went. Since her return to the UK, Sue has held a variety of interesting and diverse jobs – manageress of a health farm in Brighton and lifeguarding in Bognor Regis among them – and currently works in the care industry.

Sue studied metalwork and jewellery in Sheffield and is a keen silversmith: she wore some excellent examples of her work for the recent photograph.

Many thanks go to those who agreed to take part in this project. 1984 photographs were made using a Mamiya 6×6 camera and the recent photographs were made using an OMD EM5 Mk II camera.

Chatuchak, Part 2: Vendors

My last blog took a look at the Chatuchak Weekend Market before the crowds descend. In this blog my interest is directed to those who work at this popular Bangkok tourist attraction.

Business had just begun when I made most of these photographs, the narrow alleys of the central section still quickly and easily negotiable. Some stalls were already trading while in others, vendors waited in anticipation of a successful, busy day.

A Moment of Meditation (Coffee Cup): 2017

Looking at this photograph, one thought always occupies me: ‘I wish that coffee cup had not been there’. And it is true; I toned it down a tad, to lessen the impact, but for me it remains – admitted in my title – and anyway, I only have the one shot. It remains a vendor in refective mood rather than: ‘A mildly irritated man who knows that a farang with a camera has just asked if he could move a coffee cup.’

I waited for some time for the photograph above, but I sometimes get the feeling that something may happen to complete an image. In this case I was spotted, an occupational hazard that either works or doesn’t work. Following the moment I did enjoy some friendly banter – an occupational pleasure.

Speaking of conversations, I was talking to a grand old chap at one stall – his excellent English put my Thai speaking skills to shame – when he remarked as a parting shot: ‘yes, the market has many stories, many secrets’. I was on my way home but the vendor’s words got me thinking: untold stories? Hidden away? I wondered if they would ever reveal themselves.

The thousands of visitors Chatuchak attracts each weekend are well catered for, too. I tried the street food: delicious. Hot work when you consider the climate; well into the nineties usually. The lady above was able to engage with the few basic Thai pleasantries I offered, as was her assistant – also pictured above – sitting by her side.

Street portraiture has always interested me; it offers the chance to be a little in control and it presents the challenge of giving the resulting image relevance. I met a young man (portrayed below) outside a small, glass-fronted unit which was brightly lit to show off some very large paintings. We chatted and established the paintings were his work and he agreed to a photograph. I went outside to make the shot, the unit was too small to achieve the framing I felt I needed. What I didn’t anticipate was getting my hand in; by happy accident, in the right place… at the moment of exposure.

Thanks for visiting my blog. For those who like to know, I used an Olympus OMD with a Zuiko short zoom lems to make the photographs.

Chatuchak, Part 1: before the crowds descend

Rendezvous Point: The clock tower dominates the market, 2017

Covering some 27 acres, Bangkok’s Chatuchak Weekend Market is one of the biggest in the world. The market comprises around 15,000 stalls, the bulk of which are arranged grid-like with crisscrossing alleyways – which barely allow the passage of two people abreast – contained within a broad perimeter ‘avenue’. It is from this circulating walkway that the famous Clock Tower can be seen, offering hope for the lost: it is a popular meeting point for that reason. It is here that you can reunite with friends, sit and reflect on the experience or contemplate the wooden ‘croaking frog’ you just bought because, well, one does. I made the photograph above when things came together for me, contre-jour, a little after sunrise. The market largely dormant.

I like to visit the market early morning – before the latest contingent of the 200,000 who visit the market annually – because I have the place to myself. Nearly. Sometimes among the lifeless mannequins, the piles of books, t-shirts, souvenirs and other items, the well worn tarpaulin stretched across goods yet to be revealed… life pops up unexpectedly and the market wakes up.

A benefit, for me, of having a place like Chatuchak to oneself is the chance to look at things closer. Occasionally I spot a detail that gives me a chance to consider what is before me in a more contemplative way, exploring elements of composition, light and shade. This doesn’t happen often, but here are three examples: lights waiting to be switched on, polythene sheets stretched to cover their brimming contents and parasols waiting to be unfurled.

Naturally, as we are in Bangkok, there are oddities: I came across a bust – a replica of some classical work – sat on a table at an intersection in the artists’ zone. It didn’t appear to be on sale and I was having no luck with it. A farang with a briefcase was hurrying along. I picked my moment; on reflection I got it wrong – not the ‘decisive moment’ – but I like it anyway.

I have a wooden frog somewhere, consigned to a box and hidden away. Perhaps I’ll find it one day and be able to tell someone, ‘look, it croaks!’.

Written off, but not forgotten: crashed cars, spare parts and untold stories

Top of the heap, the latest acquisition: 2015

I paid a short visit to a dismantling firm – spur of the moment decision really – in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire during July of 2015. I had arrived in the town on an early morning train and made my way to the outskirts where once stood the vast buildings and blast furnaces of steelworks.

I was looking for something I could not find: the new warehousing depots and characterless industrial units, some still waiting for occupation, were not it. The weather was deteriorating fast and my getaway toward the town centre took me past a dismantlers’ yard: I remembered finding parts here for my first car – an old Renault 5 – over 40 years previously.

What an odd beauty destruction may bring: 2015

The guy in the office gave me the ‘once’ over – twice – before allowing me in to make photographs. After I’d had a good look around – making shots later to be ignored – I began to look a little closer. Occasionally, among the clutter and chaos, I’d find a few interesting arrangements of distorted metal and displaced parts. Then I made a photograph of an interior and things got a little more philosophical.

The door of this car was missing and I didn’t resist the temptation. I crouched in the passenger side – the seats had been removed – and considered the scene; ‘what were your thoughts at the moment of impact?’, ‘did you have time to have a thought?’. The dashboard was intact; maybe, on the premise that cars are replaceable, this story had a happy ending.

I recalled JG Ballard, whose book, Crash I had enjoyed:

‘A car crash harnesses elements of eroticism, aggression, desire, speed, drama, kinesthetic factors, the stylizing of motion, consumer goods, status – all these in one event.’

I noticed a redundant church that overlooked the scene and found this connection appropriate. As I made the short walk into the town – and shelter – the drizzle had become rain.

For those who like to know, the camera was an Olympus OMD coupled with a Zuiko short zoom lens. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Diversions: Photography and How I Enjoy Playing…

Sometimes, while reviewing files, I come across an image that fails to work for me but which, on closer scrutiny, offers the possibility of a crop and the chance to ‘play around’ with it. More often than not, interestingly, this is a colour image and therefore ‘out of my comfort zone’. My ‘notes in passing’ are predominantly monochrome and that is the setting I use on my camera by default.

Both the above images were made one the same day, at a car park that overlooks the Gulf of Thailand. I was waiting for the sun to rise fully and had a walk around to kill some time. The first was part of an image that I simply flipped upside down because the shapes, for me, worked better as a composition. The second was taken on a raised pavement that ran alongside the parking spaces; it had rained during the night and a large pool of water had formed at the point where the footpath turned a corner, catching the early light. It was a reasonably simple job, using Photoshop, to turn the photograph into something I could live with.

Talat Noi, one of Bangkok’s oldest communities, is one of my favourite districts and is the subject of an ongoing project (there is a blog on this page about it). The image above was made through the doorway of a building that was being renovated. The main change I made was to shorten the broom handle until it, in my opinion, worked with the composition. Artistic license…

I don’t have a macro lens, but my lens will focus very closely and on occasion I have experimented with very close up images. The two photos above were made using this and on these I specifically went out to make colour photographs as a little project. The tendrils in the first were barely a millimetre wide. The close focus and low light combined to give me only a couple of points were the image is sharp and I brightened the highlights at those points. I removed most of the background, leaving a little detail which I felt complemented the design. Likewise, the highlights were selectively brightened in the second image. It’s about the colour red.

I was sat outside the house one early morning when I noticed the intense shadows on the wall caused by a tree bathed in the warm light of the sun, which had just risen above the rooftops of surrounding houses. The was a gentle breeze and the shadows moved, almost imperceptibly, as I watched them. I thought: ‘how great it would be if you could capture that as a painting’. So I tried to realise what that may look like and this was the result.

Finally a crop from a photograph that I would normally have made in black and white. The complementary colours used by the artist produced a stunning effect, however, and I didn’t resist the temptation to alter my settings for a moment. On review, I thought there was an almost collage effect, that the window looked disassociated from the wall. It was a simple task to mask the image – window frames are easy, with their straight lines – and attempt to emphasise this effect. Whatever, there is a lot going on in this picture.

Interestingly, I note that all of these images were taken in 2017. I’m still playing.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Usual Olympus OMD and Zuiko short zoom used for all, for those who are interested.

Closure: I need to let the eighties go…

I look through the portraits that formed a late 1984, early 1985 project on an almost annual basis. My subject was the ‘alternative’ youth culture of Scunthorpe, a steel town in North Lincolnshire. I shall be there in six weeks’ time and it occurred to me that it will be the 35th anniversary of the project.

I am planning to track down some of these folk, see what they’re up to and, should they allow it, make another portrait. I originally shot around eighty portraits and I am hoping to track down about 24: I think that will be a project, and I think that then I can lay the thing to rest.

In 1985 I held a modest exhibition of around 48 portraits, mounted but unframed, in the local museum and gallery. I have moved around a lot since – including abroad – and about 24 of the original prints have accompanied me on my travels. About 4 years ago I discovered the complete set of negatives in a box stored in my brother’s garage. All in perfect condition.

I contact printed the lot and am hoping, nearer my visit, that social media – particularly local groups – will provide me with some contacts. A number are facebook friends, so I perhaps have a bit of a start there. I’m fairly optimistic.

Originally shot on film using a medium format – 6cm x 6cm – camera, I shall be using my digital camera for any new photographs. I am also going to be thinking about context.

I remember those days well, the project was a lot of fun. Along the way I met a lot of very resourceful and interesting people.

I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends, finding out a little more about the many strangers I photographed. I do know that some of my subjects are, sadly, no longer with us; the new project will be a memorial to them.

And if I am not successful? Well there will always be next year…

Thanks for taking the time to look at this small selection of images. If there are developments, I’ll be keeping you posted….