My "Intimate glimpses..." exhibition opens..

...on Wednesday.

Hanging tomorrow

I've now mounted and framed the last four images of the essay and will be hanging them in the Martin Bush Studio Gallery in Royal William Yard (map) tomorrow.

I'm delighted Martin has given me some of the boards normally filled with his exuberant abstracts. It's great that such a well-established artist has given over space for Plymouth - Intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character

BBC feature

Here is the essay as it appears on the BBC Devon web site, for those of you who want to have a look-see. When you see them "in the flesh" at the gallery, you'll see how much better they look than when you see them on the web.



Whew! I'm glad the last week is over, it's been so busy (=happiness!)—working with the BBC on captions, gallery meetings, printing, mounting, getting images framed, writing/printing wall-cards, celebrating, weekend house-guests...

I should be back to checking over your blogs now and replying to the comments I've seen coming in. Bear with me, normal service will resume shortly...

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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BBC Devon lead story - Highton Ridley photo essay

Yaaay!

Moved up to lead story today!

My photo essay "Plymouth - Intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character" is featured as the lead story on the BBC Devon web site.

As a result (or just coincidence?) I've had enquiries from two galleries already! And I've still got to send an email to a whole bunch of them in Devon, so maybe should get some more interest.

Wish me luck!

Update: The link I gave was to the front page of the Devon site where it was the lead story but only for one day. Anyone visiting the link after that would see whatever was the next lead story

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Highton Ridley photo essay used in relaunch of BBC Devon website

Here's the unveiling of the photo essay :)

Secret squirrel project...

Regular followers will know that I've had a secret squirrel project on the go for a while. I was approached by the BBC and commissioned for the relaunch of their Devon website to produce a series of images of Plymouth that would embody its character in some way.

The resulting photo essay, Plymouth—intimate glimpses of a hidden and changing character, is the lead story in their Arts and Culture section.

I'm sure you'll share with me my delight at this great publicity coup! You can help me get this story out—use the tweet or stumble-it buttons below. Your loyalty and help is greatly appreciated as always :)

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Photo essay project

Hi folks, I've been a little absent from your blogs recently, so sorry 'bout that.

Secret squirrel...

I've been working on the "secret squirrel" project I mentioned in a recent post. For now I can let you know it's a photo essay / slide show, entitled "Plymouth - an intimate glimpse of a hidden and changing character", but that's all.. ..tease, tease!

I'll finally 'fess up to what's going on when I'm given the go-ahead.

Ooooh, mystery!

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Neighbours - a social comment

I was staying at a friends a while back in their beautiful new home. It's in a development on what was Ipswich's war-time airport and in their back garden, I was struck by how isolating these spaces are.

Too much privacy?

Neighbours, Ipswich 2007

Some would say it's for privacy, and I guess that view has some merit. I just question the totality of it. I think that much more usual, and what I'm more used to, is hedges, low fences and walls, where you can still see your neighbour's space if you make a little effort—you know, crane your neck, trim the hedge, pick weeds out the wall. That way, it's still private, but not entirely off-cutting.

By this I mean that the out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrone exists. You know, the SEP field generator used by Slarty Bartfast (Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy) to hide his spaceship (SEP field—a field that works on the Somebody Else's Problem principle— if it's somebody else's problem, it hits your slippery-shouldered blind spot, where your subconscious knows it can safely ignore the existence of the thing and so you just don't see it).

So this image is a social comment about the slow destruction of real-world community by the treatment of people by large organisations as repeating homogeneous units, where one is the same as the next.

How you read the image is up to you—there's certainly heavy overtones of regimented uniformity; suppressed uniqueness, enforced uniformity—the way our personalities are wrapped up into little indistinguishable boxes.


comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Photographers Bust Card (UK only)

With the anti-terrorism laws in the uk, innocent photographers have been 'harassed' by the police using poorly interpreted law. The MET (Metropolitan Police) have been tardy but have provided clarification that common practice exercised by police officers with regard to photographers has largely been wrong.

I'm a photographer not a terrorist

This is a summary of your rights and the police's powers.
Download and print your 'bust card' here

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Clarity given by MET for UK journalists (blogger, that's you!)

The MET have re-issued their guidance about interfering with "journalists" and their cameras.

Hope for all UK bloggers

Many have cried "that's ok for journalists but what about the rest of us?"

I believe that this is great news for many more than National Union of Journalists (NUJ) journalists.

I blog therefore I am (a journalist)

Because of this blog I class myself as a journalist. The guidance given by the MET doesn't include a definition of what a journalist is, and I see no reason why the widely accepted notion that many bloggers are journalists should not apply.

To make it clear, I intend to design, print and laminate a journalists badge to wear when the occasion demands. For me, that is any time when I'm out and about with my camera. I am, after all, a photojournalist by the mere fact of being a blogger who posts photos.

My purpose may be to record places or sights for historic record purposes, architectural interest or as a photo essay with an art bent. These and many other purposes are, to me, journalistic endeavours, making me or any exponent, a journalist.

Do you see any flaw in that?

comment / discussion welcome

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Waiting for collection

I think this is called "a shot from nothing", borrowing a term from snooker :)

Pallets, Tyre And Junk

Serendipity

I was out with my camera, walking around an interesting area near where I live. I was specifically looking for photo opportunities when I bumped into this scene. The junk was in a backlane beside some small work-yards, stacked and waiting for recycling collection.

I didn't touch any of it — the composition is just as I came across it. What initially drew my eye were the lovely relationships between the elements and their balancing shapes. The pooling of light and the way it fell across the scene was what made the shot for me.

comment / critique / feedback positively encouraged!

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Yesterday's photojournalism shots

Here are the first shots out the ddr from the opening day of the Barbican International Jazz and Blues Festival. First up we have Louise Parker, followed by a brass band.

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