Monthly Archives: April 2017

Spring

Yesterday, a sunny early morning walk between banks of frothy cow parsley along the River Cam at Bottisham Lock.  Cow parsley Anrhriscus sylvestris: umbrels announcing spring today and summer tomorrow; the scent of flowers and crushed stalks redolent of secret … Continue reading

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Barry Lane

Today The Guardian reported the death of Barry Lane at the age of 72.  Sue Isherwood writes: ‘In 1970 he joined the Arts Council as regional art officer, organising 14 touring exhibitions over three years. As the council’s first photography … Continue reading

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Fenscape 29 – Landscape Memory

Landscape is built up through geology, biology and human land use.  It has an objective history, but as we view it we see only what remains, what it wishes to reveal, like the physical presence of a subjective memory.  Three … Continue reading

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Cambridge Camera Club

The Cambridge Camera Club’s Annual Exhibition has been on show at the Pitt Press building this week.  With 208 mounted prints and 257 projected digital images (PDIs) it embraces all that’s good and bad about the camera club world. On … Continue reading

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Market Mannequins

Seeing this parade of bright figures yesterday made me think that I should continue with the mannequin project, not treat Mannequins – A Strange Parade (see  post 19th February 2017) as the end point.  Maybe I will.  Or is this … Continue reading

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John Benton-Harris

Sorry to have missed the recent event with John Benton-Harris in Norwich (http://www.wexphotographic.com/blog/events/2017-04-29-seminar-with-john-benton-harris/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=John-Benton-Harris3).  Reading of it took me back to May 1982 when JB-H lead a workshop on social documentary photography at the Cambridge Darkroom, at that time still housed … Continue reading

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Swavesey

Before Wednesday’s walk at Swavesey I visited my chiropractor, Peter Milbank.  He set me the challenge of coming back with photos of a water bird and a curious man made object.  Picture below take in Swavesey Market Street gives two … Continue reading

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Fenscape 28

Walking with the U3A group yesterday starting at the White Horse, Swavesey. The route took us along part of the Pathfinders Way, devised to perpetuate the name of the Royal Air Force Pathfinder Force (Group 8), the 43 mile route … Continue reading

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Leica on Film

The excellent film of Julian Barnes’s novel The Sense of an Ending adds to the canon of films that feature an aspect of photography.  Tony Webster, the central character, runs a small specialist Leica camera shop.  A casual customer is … Continue reading

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Ambiguity

‘Photographs are ambiguous.  Their truths are at best partial, their interpretations myriad….inclusion of sharply rendered and selectively chosen detail amplifies the uncertainty.  …. “A photograph is a secret about a secret.  The more it tells you the less you know.”’  … Continue reading

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Beechwoods – Cambridge Edge

Two little structures sit in a field of beans (or peas) on the edge of Cambridge.  Hides for shooters protecting the crop from the hungry pigeons.  ‘Hide’, the perfect use of a verb as a noun; in America a ‘blind’, … Continue reading

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Only Colour

Asked to choose, I’d have no hesitation in saying I prefer B&W photography to colour.  It reveals the essence things through a graphic simplicity that removes the confusion and subjectivity of colour.  The tonalities and textures of B&W are beautiful … Continue reading

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Beechwoods Setting

A disturbed night.  Then the day dawned bright and clear and I decided to visit the Beechwoods to re-energise myself.  I wanted to try to photograph the woods in their landscape setting.  This was not easy.  The topography is gently … Continue reading

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Pinhole Poppy

I decided to really put technical perfection to one side and use my pinhole camera on the Beechwoods project.  I haven’t used it for nearly a year and was a bit taken aback to find there was still a film … Continue reading

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Technical Perfection

See http://www.wexphotographic.com/blog/features/perspective-does-technical-perfection-in-images-matter/ for an interesting piece on the quest for perfection.  I agree with what Ben Davis says in referring to Lange’s Migrant Mother: ‘Such is the power and depth of emotion in the image that any slight errors are … Continue reading

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