Passing By

This is one from a new batch of Dungeness pictures that I'm working through at the moment - I've been rubbish lately at updating either this blog or the gallery partly because of the volume of new stuff that needs doing at the moment, and partly because of some technical problems.

It's not likely to get better in the near future either as I've just today been discussing the first exhibition for the Science project - it's going to be on display at the Manchester Museum from September 3rd to October 16th. Now, this is close enough for a bit of worry anyway, but given that the actual photography part of the project is less than halfway completed at this point I think some genuine panic might have to be pencilled into my schedule. Stay tuned for my inevitable mental collapse!

Another Place

This is from the huge new artwork by Antony Gormley currently to be seen at Crosby beach near Liverpool - a hundred metal casts of Gormley's own body are placed along nearly two miles of shoreline, many disappearing under the waves at high tide. An really impressive spectacle, and quietly poignant too.

I've just got back from a trip to London - must admit it did feel strange to be travelling there so soon after the attacks, and I did indeed get stuck on a stiflingly hot tube line for a while because of a security alert. But despite that things seemed to be business as usual in the capital, which can only be a good thing ... a veteran who was travelling into London for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2 was interviewed by the BBC and just said "We've been through all this before. Nil desperandum", which seemed to sum up the response of Londoners to the tragedy.

So, as for photo business as usual, I saw Lise Sarfati's new American Series exhibition at the Photographer's Gallery, which I enjoyed a lot. Also managed to finally get hold of a copy of Trent Parke's book Dream/Life, which I've wanted for a long time. He has apparently just completed a major new body of work based on a few years of constant travel around Australia which I'm looking forward to seeing very much.

On The Ness

I've added a new section to the gallery of pictures from Orford Ness - there aren't that many as I was only on the Ness for a couple of hours before an enormous storm rolled in and I had to beat a hasty retreat. Thanks to the National Trust warden for coaxing a reluctant ferryman to come and collect me!

Despite my curtailed visit I found it a fascinating place - the debris from almost a century of military testing just lying around rusting on a windswept bit of shingle that seems to be only barely managing to stay above the waters of the North Sea. It's a shame though that so much of the Ness is still off-limits, including the nuclear-test "pagodas" which are the most striking feature when you arrive on the boat. Being given a stern lecture on arrival by the warden about the danger of unexploded munitions does tend to diminish any appetite for exploring off the cleared trails though...

Dino Time

There have been no updates for a while to this, my photo-activity-blog, for the slightly ironic reason that there's been too much photography going on. I shot so much in June that I'm still catching up with the backlog, a big part of which was the result of doing a couple more days at the university on the Day In The Life project.

The above picture is from the day I spent trailing Dr Phil Manning, the curator of palaeontology at Manchester, a really interesting and productive experience. Thanks to my willing victim too for being so accomodating and not minding having a lens pointed at him for eight straight hours! I'll probably put together a page soon with an edit of the university stuff linked from the front of my gallery.

Incidentally, I've noticed that the archive links on the side of this page don't seem to work - I'll try to fix that, but for the time being you can navigate back through posts by using the "previous posts" list.