Whats this about then?

Hastings Pier. October 2010. 

As with many of my kind there is a certain fascination with photographing the ruined, dead, decaying, half destroyed landscape. Truth be told I am still not sure why it holds so much visual appeal. Maybe somewhere deep inside my subconscious there are hidden reasons waiting to get out, or may be it just looks different, and therefore interesting. But more often than not I will convince myself that it is a small historic moment that needs to be recorded. 

Malibu. November 2018

My work has always walked the fine line between documentary and fine art in that I want to document a scene, but I also want to make it visually appealing and in doing so may expand the truth a little through increased saturation, and image enhancement. However, Disaster Porn as it has become known (a crude and horrid term) is not something I wish to be associated with. 

Very often whatever drives a photographer to make images  cannot simply be explained. Photographers will often pour out all kinds of spiel in an attempt to explain and justify their work and what moved them to make an image, but more often than not its instinctual.

A mentor of mine (and I have probably mentioned it on here countless times) once told me that,

 'A photograph should always ask a question.' But that's not to say it should always give an answer.. 

 

Outskirts of London some time ago with a 10/8" camera.

The nights of lugging a 10/8" view camera through cold wet grass are behind me now. But I often miss those twilight's of purpose when I felt I was the only one out with a camera. 
Mention Night Photography to someone today and more often than not they will think of one of those 'Milky Way' shots where the ISO on there digital camera is turned right up picking up every detail imaginable. Amazing at first, but now everyone's at it because its easy and effective. Its a little bit like one of those long exposures of a waterfall.
As I cannot bring myself to post either a Milky Way image, or a waterfall, or a combination of the two, I will have to make do with these humble offerings...

Is that you Dawn..

Pep Boys. Hollywood. 2019

Sometimes the dawn light can be just as magical as twilight although there is a sense of working backwards as exposures get shoter rather than longer..

The Vehicular Landscape series continues..

Sleepy Nights.

Cathedral City, CA 2019

Still getting use to the speed in which a digital sensor can record over film. A shot like the one above would of been around 2 minutes on film. With digital it was 2 seconds..
The nights have gone when I would leave the camera exposing and walk around imagining the final image framed and on a wall somewhere, or I might of even had a short nap.

Three Palms. 2019

 Another random image from my 9 DAYS series.

9 DAYS.

Towels. Ojai. Ca 2018

Truth be told I have been plugging away at a project for the last twelve months. But unlike unloading the big camera and setting up the tripod, this one has been a little different, shot entirely on a small discreet Leica and with the aperture set wide open on a fixed 28mm lens.

As a photographer who has always worked purposefully within boundaries this has been quite the departure for me, but very fulfilling all the same. Although I have limited myself to hand holding and a fixed aperture and exposure (like a snapshot), so you could say I still have limits. 

All will be revealed once the project is done, but for now I will pop up a few images along the way. The project is called 9 DAYS.