Category Archives: Remains

The ‘Remains’ project: to look at how objects – animals, bicycles, boats and gloves – decay and part merge into the background while retaining their identity.

Brent Goose (?)

A fallen goose (angel?) lying in awful symmetry on the sand of Scolt Head.  A victim of bird flu?  Perhaps, anyway a good reason for not examining it closely to identify the species with any certainty.  From size and colour … Continue reading

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Endings 1

“When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.” Kahlil Gibrán, Sand and Foam  

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Oystercatcher, Snettisham

Oystercatcher found in the dunes at Snettisham on 30th March 2021. No obvious signs of injury leading to death. Digital image converted to monochrome and selenium toned with Lightroom preset.

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Tyre Fire

It’s beautiful and appalling: a pile of worn out motor tyres dumped and set alight leaving a mass of soot, charred rubber and a tangle of rusted reinforcing wire like spun burnt barley sugar.  Beautiful for: the abstract expressionist contrasting … Continue reading

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Waiting – Quinze Cans

This gallery contains 5 photos.

I’ve been tinkering with photography again.  The 15 pictures in this latest book are, of cans gathered from gutters, scrubbed and scanned (cameraless photography).  I see them as part of a continuing project, ‘Remains’. Many thanks to David Horan for … Continue reading

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Rook

Rook under a lime tree, Mowbray Road, Cambridge, yesterday. The corvidae are among the most intelligent of birds. This one, probably hit by a car, was not quite clever enough.

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Cans

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Finding pleasure in contemplating decay is perverse, according to Christopher Woodward’s In Ruins.  But pleasure there seems to be, hence the queues at palaces, temples and castles around the world.  Are we subconsciously facing up to our own inevitable demise, … Continue reading

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Pigeon Prey

I went into the garden yesterday morning to collect fallen apples and was presented with evidence of nature red in beak and claw flourishing in my suburban garden.  Wood pigeon wing and tail feathers were scattered across the grass; and … Continue reading

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Talking Pictures

I’ve applied to join the U3AC Photography Forum in 2018-19.  If successful I think I shall focus my efforts on trying to improve the way the Forum talks about photography and photographs, see post 16th June 2018.  There are many … Continue reading

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Graffiti

Banksy is the best-known (and best?) of the graffiti artists whose work has blurred the distinction between art and vandalism.  Local authorities don’t like graffiti.  Cambridge City Council’s web site says: ‘Graffiti is illegal. It spoils property and can be … Continue reading

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Conifers

I’m reading Mark Cocker’s Our Place – Can We Save Britain’s Wildlife Before It Is Too Late?  A sharp focus for his criticism of the way we mistreat our wildlife and countryside is the creation of vast areas of coniferous … Continue reading

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U3AC Photo Forum 21 – Still Life

Jitka Brynjolffssen ran Friday’s session on still life, which she defined as: ‘A genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life … Continue reading

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Prayer Flags

These warning tapes flapping in the breeze are reminiscent of Buddhist prayer flags.  Yellow symbolises the element earth and the east; horizontal flags, are called Lung Dar.  Prayer flags should always be still and it is considered disrespectful if they … Continue reading

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Fish

Benjamin Franklin, someone never short of a good quote, famously said that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.  When choosing fresh fish the advice is to: check the smell; test for taut flesh; and look for bright … Continue reading

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Disposal of the Dead

There are good public health reasons for taking care over the disposal of human corpses. The manner of disposal is often dominated by spiritual concerns or a desire to show respect for the dead or both, and may be carried … Continue reading

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