Blog pages

The Dambusters

Taking a break from life as a bard so, here’s a Jerusalem post…

One of the places we used to play as kids in the 1960s, was the crew yard of an old farm in the middle of the village. We knew it as “the paddock”. It was a square patch of land about the size of two tennis courts, overgrown, unused, and full of old farm machinery of another age. It was enclosed by open fronted barns and high brick walls. Like most villages these days these places have been lost to small housing developments. They are usually given an uninspiring name reflecting their history; “The Paddocks” or “Hayfield Rise” etc. Not in Scampton, former home to the WWII 617 Dambusters squadron.

617 court housing development
617 Court, housing development
Dambusters pub
The Dambusters pub
Lancaster bomber weather vane
Lancaster bomber weather vane
Bus shelter with red arrows motif
Scampton bus shelter (the Red Arrows used to be based here also)

 

Further info:
The Blitz Tea Room (this blog) 
More about Jerusalem project
The Dambusters (Wikipedia)

Spurned

Tidal waves mark time
Ocean Consumes evidence
Gulls’ mocking laughter

Spurn point

As some of my haikus are a not so self-explanatory, I thought it might be helpful if I explain the rational behind one of the more obscure ones…

Documentary photography is about recording evidence. The frame in this image is intended for tourists to frame their own image, it’s akin to saying I was here. The place is Spurn Point, a spit, which one day will probably be consumed by the sea. So, the tide waits until it can consume the spit. Meanwhile, the gulls laugh mockingly at the futility of it all.

All of my shadow images employ the concept of phenomenology. The rationale being that the photographer can never be entirely objective. Their very presence and personal perspective will inevitably distort reality.

The stuff in the photograph will never be seen again in exactly the same way – the world has moved on. When an image is viewed, the viewer, who exists in an entirely separate reality will fabricate another perspective of their own.

Similarly, shadows in the landscape are in constant motion and never the same twice. The moment-in-time captured in camera is a human intervention. Photographing your own shadow is evidence that something once existed, tagging the landscape, saying I was part of this…