If you get the chance then go and see the Tony Cragg exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – it is well worth the visit. I knew nothing about the artist until I went and now I know a great deal more and want to know more – surely the sign of great exhibition!
My long run of creative output using the Apple pencil seems, at the moment, to have reached its natural conclusion…it will no doubt change. For now though it is back to the my first love – sketching – so here are the first two pages from my new sketchbook.
This morning over my breakfast cereals I read an interesting piece about the decline in innovation in new cameras. In short the article argued that camera manufacturers weren’t giving the consumer reasons to replace their equipment on a regular basis. This was seen as ‘The Death of Digital Photography’. Now I understand that catchy titles are need to attract views to a web page – it worked for me – but the whole thrust of the article I felt somewhat missed the point of photography.
Photography isn’t about the camera gear, the number of pixels or grain size. Photography is about the photograph and nothing more. Yes to create certain images you do need certain kit but in the end no amount of kit is going to make a great photograph – after all any camera, whether digital or film/plate/paper/metal is only a method of capturing the reflected light off of an object. Technology can make things easier but in the end the photographic image, as with all other images, is created in the human brain where we apply our own tastes and prejudice and no amount of technology is going to get away from that.
All of these images have been made with a different variety of cameras and are either captured on film or digitally. Whether you consider that they are an interesting images is formed within your brain. This is the basis of all images made by man going back many millennia. I suspect this has always been the curse of photography as most people can only judge whether a photographer is ‘serious’ or not by the amount of kit he can display at the time of capturing the image as we rarely get to see the finished photograph. It is a pointless exercise but we’ve all done it from time to time.
One final point. The passage of time can to an interest you might have in an image or series of images as these two images prove – they were both taken at roughly the same spot but 20 plus years apart.
One of the enduring impressions I get when wondering around the gardens of Calke Abbey is that I am in a recreation of the garden out of Peter Rabbit. Yesterday was not an exception. The sun was shining, the chill north wind was a only slightly bothersome, and once you were inside the walled gardens it dropped away to almost nothing. Suddenly for a few short moments it was almost paradise. To complete the cliche of an english country garden in the largest of the of the walled enclosures young lambs played whilst their mothers rested and recovered from the ordeal of giving birth. Everything was right with the world – including the cream tea which was obligatory after such exertions!
Spring is gathering a pace…I fear it is just a little too unseasonal at the moment but that is not going to stop me enjoying this early spring sun and a little warmth. Today I was out and about around the windfarm at Gilmorton which is the subject of a long term photographic project which I have banged on about a lot on this blog – I don’t intend to add to this here you’ll be glad to hear.
I also combined a spot of landscape archaeology at the same time but mainly it was just fun to be out in the fresh air. The weather forecast suggest that this weather may well stay much the same for the next few days so you won’t find me complaining…much.
It’s back! Is it really four years since I last went to the Format Photography Festival at Derby? Well yes and like the last time I came it is a rum bag of stuff. One of this year’s highlights was the new and experimental approach – displaying photographs in the dark – nice one Riverlights!
We took in most of the sites in the centre of Derby and my overall impression was that there are a bunch of photographs with some really great photographs and ideas in a sea of stuff. Is it worth visiting? Yes but for two reasons: Firstly it is great to have a large photographic festival in the East Midlands and secondly if you go in the next two weeks you’ll get to wonder just what the Ladyboys of Bangkok show is all about?
Actually there are some great things to see and you get about a 6 Km walk visiting most of the sites in the city…come on you know it makes sense and of course don’t forget those ladyboys!
Ya Ya Baby…much more rewarding than banging on about Brexit.
So the letter is signed, sealed and ….(I’m not sure how it is delivered) but no matter. The rollercoaster of all rollercoaster rides starts today. After the best part of nine months of posturing this is it. Britain is starting the process to leave the European Union (EU).
Before I go on I think it is only fair I set out my position. I didn’t want to leave the EU and voted accordingly. However, we lost and so I have moved on and are now looking to get the best deal for Britain and the EU. I accept the government’s position of leaving the single market and customs union because it makes things easier for the negotiation – we want to make a fresh start so there will be no hangover from the past – also we did vote to leave the EU and these are intrinsic parts of the EU so that is what the country voted for and we have to make the best of it. This doesn’t mean that I have suddenly become a fully paid up member of the Brexit wing (more on them in a moment) but rather that we can make a fresh start of our relationship with the EU. What that final relationship looks like I haven’t got the first clue but then again I am not alone as no one, not even the Prime Minister, has either. I have said this before but it is worth repeating – anyone who says they know how this will work out is lying – they don’t.
So I guess my position is this – I didn’t want to be here but now we are I want to make the best of it. I accept that there will need to be compromises on both sides and I also accept that this relationship will take years to finally sort out but I really do hope in the end both sides come out of it stronger. I really don’t think that is a Brexit position but a realistic one.
Talking of Brexiteers the one thing that we can expect from many of them is gnashing of teeth and loud cries of disgust over the necessary compromises need to make the whole thing work. I am totally sick and tired of being told that WTO rule will be fine – they would be in a vacuum but that is not where we find ourselves – trade is but one part of our complicated relationship with the EU and there are many many things that need to be sorted out beyond the World Trade Organisation. Last week we saw 70 MPs writing a letter to the BBC complaining about what they see as ‘bias’ coverage of the effects of Brexit so far. Leaving aside that Brexit hasn’t started until today we are now supposed to only embrace the ‘good news’ according to these MPs. One of the programmes that so irritated the MPs was Countryfile, possibly the most harmless puff piece programme going, which had the temerity to actually suggest that Brexit might have an adverse effect on the farming world – who would have thought? This is just one example of what will be a continued wall of noise over the next two years where every little flounce by the EU side will be seen as a great indignity served against the ‘will of the people’ whereas it is most likely just a negotiating tactic. If I hear the ‘will of the people’ being used one more time to cover whatever cocked eyed view is being put forward by yet another Brexiteer I think I’ll scream! They no more know what the ‘will of the people’ is than I do and they certainly don’t have anymore right to it than other politician. The people voted to leave the EU and that is it, they didn’t express a view on the exact shape that exit will take no matter how many times Nigel Farage or his like stand up and say this is what they wanted but not that.
So there we have it in a nutshell. We are leaving the EU, we don’t know what shape the country will be in at the end of this complex process but we are going to try and make the best of it. Many of the politicians who were most vehemently for leaving the EU probably won’t like what the actual deal looks like but I think they are one the fringe of the political world and it will fall on the like of Boris Johnson to put them back in their crazy box and sell the deal – after all isn’t that why he is the Foreign Secretary?
Cry havoc indeed.
The Cardinal Exchange building is, in my view, the ugliest building in the city of Leicester. It was built in the early 1970’s by the then GPO Telephone and used to house one of the national telephone exchanges. It was also the international telephone exchange for Britain so if you called someone in Britain from outside the country this is probably where your call was handled. I have no idea whether this is still the case but the last time I was in the building it was mostly empty with just one floor still being used as a telephone exchange. I suspect that may well now have gone and it earns its keep by all the mobile phone base stations on the roof and so is unlikely to be pulled down anytime soon – which is a real shame because it really really is an ugly building.
These image were captured in the car park of the St George’s retail park and they remind my just a little of some of the images that Joel Meyerowitz made in St Louis all those years ago. The arch at St. Louis is a much more interesting building to put it mildly!
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