Another Return..

I only have one project where upon I revisited the same place more than once, and that of course is my Thursdays by the Sea work.

Its now more than ten years since I started the project, but I still get the same feeling everytime I arrive there and see the thermometer rise with the smell of decay. 

The whole area is constanly changing and theres always something different to photograph which is probably what keeps pulling me back there like some fickle mistress. 

On my recent visit I was interested as to how much the sea/lake had receeded since the water that was once replenishing the lake had been cut off due to drought restrictions last year. Where there had once been water, all be it rancid and smelly, there was now dirt made up mostly of broken shells, fish bones and what can only be described as the smell of death....

2015

2005

And so the projects continue..

Rollaboot. 2015

A fair amount of new work now on the website.
I seem to be photographing lots of shoes lately. Not sure why I always find one abandoned shoe so troubling..

Sand in your eyes..

I always enjoy my American road trips. The freedom and content is, for me, a photographers dream and no surprise that so many feel drawn to it.

So there I was minding my own business enjoying the late aftenoon light when a warm wind began to stir. Within minutes I was surrounded by what can only be described as a scene from a disaster movie as I was battered by a sandstorm and shrouded in darkness. But rather than sit out the storm in my car I continued to shoot and rather enjoyed myself battling with the gritty wind.

 Lovely afternoon light....

Minutes later...

Standing corrected..

Was reading your blog and putting my lecturer head on I have to disagree with you re "Meyerowitz, Misrach, Evans, Adams, and all the others never changed their style".

 

Yes they did.

 

Meyerowitz went from 35mm street photography to large format landscape and back again and continues to move between the two.

 

Misrach went from grainy black and white stuff with Warhol to medium format black and white night pics to his big colour stuff to panoramics, reverse prints (negative) to digital to pixillated prints of super magnified digital images and continues to experiment.

 

Evans went from his street photography to the FSA style landscapes and people to colour to polaroids and semi abstract stuff at the end of his life.

 

Adams went from documentary 35mm to his large format stuff and back again with his Japanese interment camp pics.

 

and all the others never changed their style....bet they did/are!  Think of Paul Graham, Alec Soth et al.

 

 

Sorry couldn't help myself. ;-)

 

And I wrote;

"But did they change because they had to, or because they wanted to.."

 

But of course my good friend is right.. 

The changing face of Landscape

I was asked a while back to enter the 100 mile radius (more info here). To be honest my heart was never really that into it, but I was still a little dissapointed not to be chosen for the online exhibit, or anything else for that matter.
I could go on and say I made it a rule a while ago not to enter any kind of photography competition, especially ones you have to pay to enter, but that would be a little petty. (May I just squeese in the shot was good, and not pants..)
But one point I feel I must make, even if it is to myself, is that all the work selected for this particular competition seems to look like it was taken by the same person. The style, composistion, and execution of each image all look like they come from the same page. This is certainly not an isolated case. Just look at something like the National Gallery Portrait Prize and you will see a series of images that look like they came out of the same studio. The same could also be said of universities which are often full of repitition and uniform images from each year..

So to make my somewhat wobbly point, my images do not fit into this latest era of light airy images with no real thought over composistion. This is in no way a criticism of the work, far from it, its simply what I see..
I discussed this hairy matter late into the night with my wife who told me that maybe
 "I should evolve my work more to fit in.." (Her work is constantly evolving and changing to suit the needs of Her market).
After a failed attempt at suffocating her with my pillow I told her that I had spent too many years honing my techniques to suddenly change to fit in with a style I just despise. Meyerowitz, Misrach, Evans, Adams, and all the others never changed their style.
She replied;
"Well you are not one of them..(long pause)...But I guess you are right.."