Looking Through

[See this picture at a larger size in the People section of the gallery.]

A couple of bits of news for those of you who might be following my extra-curricular activities - there's been a bit of movement on the long-awaited (by a couple of people at least!) new Stray Light record. It's still a way off, but is at least visible on the horizon now rather than scuttling around in the dark undergrowth...

More immediately, we (or Ellen more specifically) have arranged, and are playing at, a charity gig for Oxfam next month - details on the SL site.

Back on topic - I'm in the process of renewing my relationship with the Art Surgery gallery up in the (what's inevitably prefixed with "Manchester's trendy...") Northern Quarter. So, there'll be lots of my photos available through them shortly with options for canvas prints and unusual framing options.

I'm continuing to do quite well at finding secondhand photo books at the moment - best catch lately is Richard Misrach's Crimes and Splendors, an overview of his fantastic desert pictures from late 70s to mid 90s, quite important work I think, even if I am feeling a bit burnt out the current ubiquity of large-format colour work. Not sure about Misrach's organisation of pictures into 'Cantos' though - I have a low threshold of tolerance for that sort of artistic conceit, plus it makes me think of Ezra Pound going mad in a cage, which I'm not sure is a good thing.