2023

Bits of 2023. I didn’t practice nearly enough. Almost every roll was a failure (I left a few out on a hot ledge by mistake, bought too many handmade rolls, used mostly broken cameras), but I’m alright with it because things were not really clicking into place. I paid more attention to my new greenhouse, built in the summer. The greenhouse was perfect for making lumens once I had enough ledge space.

I accidentally took a pinhole on a trip with some friends, which resulted in a roll of 20-odd exposures that I love. Albiet, none of that trip came out well. I picked up my polaroid 600 again. It’s an early model with no ability to turn off the flash. My broken cameras might be too far gone now, though I still like this little broken 32mm which doesn’t have a lens cap.

I exhibited a couple of times, and stayed mostly on the outside of my little artist communities - one is active, the other is a lot less. Maybe it’s the age that my daughters are at; they need every moment of me that is available to them. I don’t need to be out there, busy and doing shows all the time. The tail end of December gifted me a lot of perspective.

Follow links for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016,  2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.

Daughters in Hastings, pinhole.

Greenhouse in autumn, pinhole.

N in the park, pinhole

N in Wales, 35mm. Broken camera.

Brixton

C&D’s house

Somewhere in Sussex, broken lens.

Grass lumen

Kale lumen, exposed over 3 weeks.

My garden.

Greenhouse, summer.

Greenhouse autumn, broken lens.

Broken camera, 35mm.

Home.

Dulwich, 35mm.

J&D

Pops, Nottingham

Croydon.

With Emily.

John in Brixton, polaroid.

Me, polaroid.

Recent. Aug '23

Recent

Bits of 2022

The Simple Things

A photograph of mine features in the April edition of the The Simple Things magazine. The rose was planted by the lady who lived in my house before me. I think she’d have really enjoyed this article.

#lofipostershow

2 December ‘21 at Studio 71, Brixton London.
Presenting the brilliant in the unusual. Fast moving photographic art shows in London.

Come and view all of the work for #lofipostershow in one airy space.

My contribution is one big lofi grainy, light leaked mess.

2020

I’m just going to keep my annual review to pictures this year.

Go here for 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016,  2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.

Beautiful tree, Dec 2020

Daughter, pinhole

Snow white

Kew, 35mm.

Bathroom, lockdown

Kendra, 35mm double exposure

Solargraph pinhole

Peonies

Daughter, forest

Lockdown

Lockdown, south London

Daily walks, lockdown. 35mm.

Balloon fest

Lex, somewhere in a pub garden

Daulton Path

December 2020

Window, lockdown

Cornelia rose, Lumen

Garden

Westerland

Neighbours in lockdown

Overgrown

Isolation

Local artists

First office, shed

Her final goodbye

Motion

Every year I shoot one or two BW rolls. Here’s a few old BW motion picture 35mm photographs.

2018 photography review

I’ve come to look forward to my annual year in review.  I’m not much of a blogger but the odd scraps I write up here are getting a bit better. My website has had a little face-lift too with the addition of a ‘places’ section and a general tidy up.

Last year I wrote that I’d be scaling things back in 2018 which is funny now that I think about it. I’ve packed in more this year than I ever have before. I knew I had to focus on other things, but the universe didn’t really agree with those plans.

Some of the things I’ve been up to, in no particular order…

• I exhibited six times. Four times with Shutter Hub (The Shutter Hub Open at 5&33 in Amsterdam and Truman Brewey in London, Because We Can at Festival Pil’ours in France and Girl Town Tel Aviv, at Alfred Gallery in Tel Aviv), a co-headline exhibition called Dino Island and The Lake with Nik Strangelove and at the British Museum Staff Art Show. I was also featured at FIX Photo Festival at Menier Gallery

• I moved house and couldn’t stop photographing it

• The super hard-working power house Karen Harvey of Shutter Hub asked me to curate an exhibition called Out of the Ordinary which is on until the end of January

• I was 2nd in the judges vote for Women of the Year at FIX Photo Festival

• I went to Italy to do a little photography work, and onto Zurich after that to photograph a party

• Lomography gave me a Diana 120 to test

• I pitched an idea to a magazine, they said yes, and it’ll be published in February 2019.

• I’ve just finished working on something with Stylus Boy

• I was fortunate to be on the long list of nomations for the Hundred Heroines
  

One of the non-photography projects I’ve worked on this year has been a pre-requisite for getting to the next stage of something really huge. I’ve gone back chronologically and written, in great detail, about every significant moment in my life and how it made me feel. Doing this kind of work would feel really self-indulgent if not for the fact that someone, in a very professional capacity, needed me to do it. This coincided with winning a place on a cross-boundary leadership programme. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I can assure you that I didn’t think it would be mine either. Both of these non-photography related things have been really magical in ways that I hadn’t expected. 2017 closed a few doors for me, but this year they swung back open again.

There are a couple of things in my notebook for 2019. Let’s see what happens.

These photographs are some of my favourites taken with Olympus Pen EE2, Canon AE-1 and Diana 120.   Go here for 2017, 2016,  2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.

Green House, Kew

Snow day, Bloomsbury

Rusty Laptop, Crystal Palace

Women, Bloomsbury

Home

Kathryn, Barbican

Somewhere in south London

Bus window, London

Birds, Glasgow

Plastic, York

Cricket ground, Grantham

Favourite rose

Chelsea Physic Garden

R

Green House, Kew

Birthday, London

Pops, Nottingham

No 3, Brixton

Olympus Pen, London

Pear drop

South London Botanical Institute

Leo, Grantham

Crystal Palace lake

Ferns, Arran

Notes

So much has happened in my life during the last six months. I've been more London based than ever, in part due to a big house move (I've inherited 28 roses bushes), but I managed to squeeze in a magical break in the Isle of Arran and quick jaunts to York and Southend. Arran was a truly picture perfect place, though I was blown over by the wind as I tried to descend a cliff side path on a mountain. Things like this always happen to me. Thankfully I put my camera away just before it happened.

For the last couple of years I've been taking pictures of my mum on her journey through vision loss. Last week her specialists admitted that 'she came to them too late'. Her mission to save some vision was thwarted by a blood clot the size of her entire lung - they said it massive, they meant it.  I'm not quite ready to publish the pictures yet because I thought she'd have a happier ending, but I'll get there.

In contrast, I've come to the end of my own years-long-hanging-around-in-waiting-rooms which is like having a chain cut off my neck. When I look at the pictures I've been taking, I wonder if they're better because they have more depth to them but to be honest, I'm happiest taking pictures of a wet landscape and blooms on a blissful morning. It's not difficult to understand why when photography is your true escape.

Some good news... I'm exhibiting with Shutter Hub in a show called Because We Can at Festival Pil’ours, Saint Gilles Croix de Vie in France.  That is going to be wonderful. Shutter Hub are wonderful. 

Here's a few of the pictures I've taken..

2017 photography review

Like a lot of people, I love the turning of a year. I love the newness of January and how it feels like shedding a skin. 2017 on the whole has been pretty amazing, though December has been a beast. As we edge closer to January I thank my lucky stars that everyone I love is still alive.

I set out to push myself in 2017 to do things I hadn't done before. I gave a couple of talks which were well received. I played a small role in an appeal for homeless photographers. I wrote articles - something that doesn't come easily to me. I even blogged more which is a small miracle. I only exhibited once and that was at The Paxton Centre, but my work was published in Oh Comely and presented at the ICA thanks to Emma Watson.

I need to scale back a bit next year but I've just come back from a short meeting to discuss a small possible exhibition on my doorstep with a local photographer.  Effra FC also turns 10, so something had better mark that occasion.

Here are some of my favourites from the year shot on 35mm and digital.  Go here for 2016,  2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009.

Ice, Crystal Palace

Somewhere on the M11

Hotel, Bilbao

Somewhere in Sussex

Maggie, Balham

Dino lake, Crystal Palace.

15 minutes from London

Pinhole, Islington

Fireworks, Crystal Palace

Love line, Tulse Hill

Aysha, Strawberry Hill

Edinburgh rain

Pre-operation, Littleport

Early bird, Crowborough

#waitingforthecall

Holiday

Spanish fish

Mirror garden, SE20

Pinholes, northern Spain

Pony, Kent

Somewhere in Spain

Myopia, Littleport.

Sunday in Sheffield

Pops, Crystal Palace