Quiet Corners

Dawn Observations #3

Paul — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:42:24 +0000

Weathered and Forgotten

Paul — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:27:37 +0000

In the same way that time decays your memories of times past, the weather and the environment can physically decay objects in much the same way, be that by corrosive weather conditions or erosive strong sunlight. Back in 2010 I placed a random selection of photo prints up on the wall of my back garden with the aim of seeing how they would decay in that environment over a period of 12 months.

The prints were pegged to a piece of old fishing net I found on the beach and initially in the spring not much seemed to happen apart from a little fading of colour. After a wet summer the edges started to wear and some of the prints began to show water damage but it wasn’t until the winter snow and cold the prints really showed wear. One very cold morning I found a huge icicle on one of the prints and the rest covered in snow. In the final months the net fell on the floor due to high winds so it remained there until the summer of 2011 when the experiment ended, 12 months after it began.

Dawn Observations #2

Paul — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:21:27 +0000

Still and Distant Lines

Paul — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:37:04 +0000

Despite the ferocious strength of the tides around the natural harbours of the south coast there are moments when the tide reaches it’s turning point and the harbour becomes still and quiet. With the hot haze of late spring sunshine you squint to discern detail of the edges of land, the boats and civilisation, the water becoming a reflective mirror.

Langstone Harbour
Nikon FE2
Colour 35mm film

Nuclear Beaches

Paul — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:12:27 +0000

Nuclear power stations are generally located in remote places far from cities and densely populated areas for safety reasons, as demonstrated by the recent Fukushima crisis in Japan. Also due to their design (the cooling system and steam turbine in particular) they are often by the sea in the UK for easy access to seawater. The coastline of the UK homes many nuclear power stations and as some of these pass in to decommissioning recent news suggests new ones are set to take their place.

Many of these remote coastal locations chosen for the power plants are not sign-posted on the local main roads yet the plants are often close to villages, to small communities that continue on as they did before the mid 20th century development in their area, many of which still sending out fishing boats from the shore. And despite the obvious radioactive dangers of the discharge of used seawater, the plant’s warm water outlets create a dramatic growth in the local food chain with small sea creatures thriving, attracting fish, which ultimately attract birds and people.

Visiting these locations and seeing these altars of mankind’s attempt to excerpt control over the fundamentals of nature set in an area when nature itself has been on the whole left to it’s own devices is visually fascinating. The strange, yet fragile, constant rebalancing of the local environment is seemingly unique to these atomic shorelines.

Bradwell, Sizewell & Dungeness
Olympus OM10, Holga 120N & Nikon FE2
Colour, Slide & B&W 35mm and Colour 120 film

To The Most Easterly

Paul — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:00:26 +0000

Transitions in nature can be fascinating, particularly where mankind is involved. Walking some distance of a river is a wonderful way in viewing how much a landscape can change, be that with changes in the natural environment due to location, weather and wildlife or changes in mankind’s appropriation and use of the waterway. Suffolk has many rivers and ‘broads’, despite Norfolk being the most famous anglian county for the waterways, with River Waveney acting as the natural boarder between the two counties. The river itself meets Oulton Broad which then links to Lake Lothing at Lowestoft where the river water finally meets the sea.

On Boxing Day I set off exploring the edge of this natural route from where the river meets the broad and made my way from reedbeds through to marinas, derelict industrial land, locks, gates, bridges and eventually the beach, the sea and the most easterly point of the United Kingdom.

Suffolk
Nikon FE2
Colour 35mm Film

Reflected Sound

Paul — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:27:31 +0000

The sound mirrors located in Denge were secret experiments attempting to locate aeroplanes crossing the channel back in the 1920s and 30s, back before the discovery and development of radar. The mirrors consist of large 200 foot wide mirror wall and two circular concrete dishes, a little like modern satellite dishes but from a time almost closer to the start of powered manned flight than space travel and modern global communication.

The dishes are all quite isolated, located on a small island in the marshes and gravel pits with a bridge normally closed to the public. The area is perfect for birds and and wildlife.

Dungeness
Nikon FE2
Colour 35mm Film

Settlement II

Paul — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:59:10 +0000

In my formative years I lived in places which were on the blurred edges, where urban areas met the countryside. One minute exploring concrete new towns, the next farm tracks and woodland. There is always something interesting to be found where civilisation places it’s fingerprints on nature to shape it to particular needs.

London
Edinburgh
Colchester
Birmingham
Portsmouth
San Francisco

Skate and…

Paul — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:39:26 +0000

Trying to capture friends skateboarding is what originally drove me to pick up a camera in the first place. Wanting to shoot film rather than digital and using natural light rather than multiple remote flashes can be time consuming and difficult, but still really fun and creative.

Colchester
San Francisco
Portsmouth
Sudbury
Romford
Ispwich
Ilford
Edinburgh
Frankfurt
London
Emsworth
Leigh-on-the-Solent

No Matter What

Paul — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:38:06 +0000

Despite it sounding natural to take photographs of people, it is something that can be awkward and strange, introducing a different way of looking at people…more so when they are friends, people so familiar, who you know so well. Trying to capture something of that person while putting them on the spot, staring down a lens and generally invoking a moment of silence is difficult yet addictive and rewarding. Time passes quickly, people change, capturing moments is important. Vital.