A simple forgotten image taken on the road home from Death Valley.

The Archive

Websites are a funny thing. Too much, too little. Its sometimes hard to know. But from past experience people always want to see more. Yes, we can leave people feeling hungry, but sometimes its good to have an area where all those past images can reside and dipped into over a cup of coffee. And so with that in mind I present, The Archive; A carefully selected jumble of images from plastic cups to frozen Pine trees.  Hopefully there is something for everyone. after all its only taken two decades to produce...

www.marcusdoylephotography.com

OLD NEW WORK

A few years ago after I finished my Virtual Water series I started another project along the LA River. The details regarding the project are on here somewhere! Anyway,  at the time the images just did not do anything for me and they were cast aside like a stale biscuit.
During a website revamp (soon to come) I have been going through the images again and guess what, now I really like them. Its not the first time this has happened, and its something I have read about countless times in journals and old books where the artist puts the work away somewhere only to return sometime later and seeing the work with a fresh perspective. .
So I have put a few on here and will get busy editing and making use of my old-new work...

Snow Birds...

Snow Birds. Thursdays by The Sea. 2004-

I was looking for a large print to put in my bedroom, as you do, and came across this image I had not seen my Thursdays by The Sea exhibition in London back in 2009. It was well wrapped and survived my overseas move. I thought the title Snow Birds was quite fitting. Here's the definition;

"Snowbird" is a North American term for a person who migrates from the higher latitudes and colder climates of the northern United States and Canada in the southward direction in winter to warmer locales such as Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, or elsewhere along the Sun Belt of the southern United States, Mexico, and areas of the Caribbean. Although snowbirds used to be associated with retired or older persons, snowbirds increasingly are of all ages. Many residents in the colder areas of the USA and Canada vacation in warmer southern locations to escape winter weather.  

OK, I'm not from North America, so the North of England will have to do. I remember the morning I made the image; I had spent the night trying to sleep in my camper van which was almost impossible at 120 degrees. The image was made around 4.00am and became one of the first images in the series. 

The building itself is actually shower units, just what you need to cool off for a few minutes before sunrise..

The lost image.

Keeler. Death Valley 2012

While going through some of my archive I was reminded of how many projects I have done that may otherwise never see the light of day again. To mention but a few, there was droughts with a lot of dried up lakes and rivers, random chairs, dumped cars, coastal views, city borders, childhood memories, lots of car parks, random still inanimate objects, human skulls and ghosts. 

I am not really sure if its easier or more difficult to keep track of images these days. I still have boxes of archive negatives that may never be printed or scanned, but then again there are all those RAW images laying dormant on a hard drive...

The above image reminded me of a Stephen Shore image which I had completely forgotten about..

We are the Night.

 Two Mirrors. Switzerland 2002

 

A very fine student I have been tutoring a little produced an excellent array of night images I had the pleasure to view in print form. The prints were many and simply stuck on a wall, some were big and some were small. A discussion developed with several other tutors a little concerned at the sheer volume of work and the lack of direction; Why so many prints, why are they not at eye level, why are there different sizes,  and all that jazz. But what I seen was very different. What I seen was the beginning of my Night Vision series. Images made with no formal direction, just an instinctual need to make long exposures.

Anyone who has made long exposures at night will be aware of just how addictive it can be and as I have mentioned here before the longer you spend on an image (my theory) the longer you look at it afterwards and there is a connection to the photograph you just don't get with a 'snap'.

It was a delight to walk into a room full of night time color which took me right back to my first show in Paris; Night Vision, Intimacies of an Unblinking Eye back in 2003.

Happy 4th July.

Somewhere around the Salton Sea 2015

It always feels a bit weird being in America on the day they celebrate independence from the British..

I only wish the V.W Beetle in the above image was an old Mini.