Projects...

Presently

I'm turning my attention and the HDR skills I've picked up in my black and white work to some colour work.

  

As part of that, I've decided to produce a photo essay in answer to "Urban Ugliness" — it's working title is "Urban Pretty".

 

I've been operating my Zazzle Store (US customers can use this link) for just over two years now. It's been a journey but one where I've managed to sell a reasonable number of items per week and the number is growing.

I'm really, really pleased to say that a few hundred more people around the world (600 and counting!) are now the proud owners of my art. A big "thank you" to them all. Maybe you are one? If so, really, thank you!

 

If you're not yet one of my happy customers, you can get my work on cards, and other great gear. The posters and canvases can be framed and there's a huge selection to choose from.

 
Many folks find something for their wall from among my range of Desiderata posters - maybe you will too?

Previous Projects

The BBC wrote a feature on my first photo essay here on their Devon website. As a result, they commissioned me for a 12-photo essay titled "Plymouth - Intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character", to feature in the relaunch of the BBC Devon website in September. This in turn resulted in a two-slot radio interview, again for BBC Devon.

See the first essay as an on-site video slideshow.

 

The second can be seen either on the BBC Devon site or, set to theremin music by Gordon Charlton aka Beat Frequency, as a high definition video on YouTube.

In the first, the photos explore, as the title suggests, those urban areas (all taken in Plymouth) that are suffering from neglect, decay or dereliction or where industrial ugliness holds sway. As the project has progressed, I've come to admire the beauty in that ugliness and hope to have captured some of that in my work.
 

A little background

Plymouth is a city with centuries of naval tradition (see the MayflowerSteps site), and so a lot of the images come from around the docksides and cargo storage / processing areas there, some from the presently derelict areas of Millbay Docks and some from a disgusting creek sandwiched between Billacombe Rd and Breakwater Road.

 

The primary cargos brought to Plymouth are china clay, fuel oil and fertiliser, with ores and aggregates, too. Plymouth is also a fishing and leisure sailing port, so the industries around these are covered as well (boat yards, quays, moorings, abandoned and rotting hulks etc.)

 

Yachting and leisure

Of course, Plymouth is also one of the yachting and leisure boating capitals of the world. Many international races either set sail from or finish here. The upcoming waterfornt redevelopments planned or in progress are seeing a shift from commercial to leisure use - watch for an increase in berths, new marinas and waterfront villages.

 

Observations

One of the things that I've noticed while working on this photo essay is that many fine old buildings are featured, now derelict, that will be razed and rebuilt. At the rate it's happening, it won't be long before there's none left...

 

And with today's approach to architecture and building design, I'm sure we will lose a lot of the character that makes and has made Plymouth what it is today. So this portfolio will also unintentionally form a historical record of those last buildings and lost spaces for future generations.

 

Planned projects

At some time in the not too distant future, where my serendipitous approach to themes and subjects runs out of steam, I intend to do some monochrome studio work on flowers and other inanimates.

  

I've long been drawn to images of, for example, orchids partially lit with the the curves and tones in black and white mimicking

  

...and once that's done, I think I want to explore the more traditional landscape photography.

 

I'm also keen to do some further work with models both in the great outdoors and in urban spaces. If that interests you then get in touch - but only locals need apply. As payment I'd provide a portfolio of the final prints, mounted and signed.