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Portfolio items in yellow on top are portfolio photobooks and pdfs that will open in a new window. These have links to the relevant high resolution images on my SMUGMUG site for closer view.

Supporting items in purple on top are blog pages with notes on development of the portfolio books and pdfs.

Supporting items in blue  behind  are links to the bigger body of work on SMUGMUG.

To open items:
Click on the heading, or the images - the padlet-generated link varies between items.

To expand items to full screen or bring them to the front:
Click on the three dots to the top right of each post.

Padlets are a more accessible and easily updated interactive way of presenting the information and multiple links than Wordpress blog pages. Particularly with RSI. But unfortunately padlets are highly automated, very limited in layout, text and colour editing and sometimes there is a strange mismatch between feature images on the padlet and those on the link.

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Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan: Supporting blog page

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Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan: Supporting blog page

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Light in the Shadows:
Book Concept

"Baizakh Village in Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. These photographs were taken taken over 6 days in May 2016 in spare moments at dawn, midday and evening time when I was not working. They are very much an outsider view of things I noticed and chose to record - only a snapshot of life at particular times of day and one of the kindest times of year."

My concept for this book was to start with monochrome abstraction. Partly because I was really struck by the light and shadows in what I saw - the light had a particular clarity from the altitude in the sunlight. That is somewhat lost in colour. Partly because I know that monochrome styles are popular in Kyrgyzstan and ex-Soviet countries, and that many of the images are well-suited to this style. Partly because processing the images in different monochrome styles can improve my understanding of the images for clearer colour composition and processing.

I am interested in experimenting and getting feedback from different audiences on different moods and treatment possibilities:

Dramatic abstract light/shadow contrast.

Soft misty mystery

Grungy textures.

Fragility of thin delicate lines

Nostalgia.

As well as giving a feel for life in Baizakh.

I still need to decide whether to add text, where and how - based on audience input and relationship to the final more documentary colour book version. Possibly this might draw on Japanese/Chinese styles.

Inspiration

Influence Lithuanian photography, Atget/Brassai Paris and Photobook from Kettles Yard.

Japanese and Chinese photobooks.

!! Insert pages from Photobook logbook

Baizakh Black and White: original
Blurb 2017

The Original Blurb book for Landscape Photography done in Lightroom Book module. !! need to do annotations. This was printed as a hardcover landscape format photobook on Prolene Pearl paper. Text was limited to the inside flap of the back cover. 25x20cm 42 pages costing currently around £35 without discount or postage - probably around £20. Print quality was generally good, but the photos lacked depth or texture and were sometimes too dark, and the layout was not very inspired.

Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan 1:
Landscape format Black and White

Revised landscape version with re ordering of photos, processing in Silver FX to give more targeted detail and contrast. 25x20cm 42 pages costing currently around £35 without discount or postage - probably around £20. I left out the photos of people. But needs more consistency and better juxtaposition.

!! slideshow needs to be annotated. These look much darker at smaller size.

Light in the Shadows
of T'ien Shan 3:
Square format sepia

There seems generally to be a preference for the sepia images.

I now plan to do a detailed analysis in a logbook of the images and book layouts in sources I have looked at:

Lithuanian photography

Atget/Brassai Paris

'Light Spells' photobook from Kettles Yard, Cambridge.

Japanese and Chinese photobooks.

I am particularly interested in:

how far they follow one particular style/mood and whether and how they vary the mood between pages and spreads

use of whitespace around and between images, including use of blank pages

whether, how and where they use captions

how and where they give other information sbout the publication - what is explicit and what is implicit and left to the viewer

which approaches I find most effective in communicating mood, beauty and particularly provoking questions about what I am looking at.

This feedback pdf will be added to as I get more input, and it will be attractively laid out. Currently I have left some black pages. Please ignore these.

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Assignment 4.2 Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan

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"Baizakh Village in Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. These photographs were taken taken over 6 days in May 2016 in spare moments at dawn, midday and evening time when I was not working.

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A Week in Teetotal Street: Supporting blog page

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A Week in Teetotal Street: Supporting blog page

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This third assignment 'TeeTotal Street' produces a small graphic and text book based on a diary and photographs of a holiday flat where we stayed in St Ives in November 2019, just before the Brexit general election. It is a very personal response to my feelings of claustrophobia and helplessness at the time and doubts and dilemmas of trying to be a 'responsible tourist' amid all the social and environmental conflicts in St Ives. It draws visual inspiration from Richard MacGuire's 'Here', Jonathon Miller's 'Nowhere in Particular' and the work of Aaron Siskind, and brings together a lot of my earlier reading and visual experimentation in a way that considers more explicitly issues raised by Poynor in 'First Things Next'. To start to develop ways in which my work can provoke questions about the way we live - our relationships and social and environmental responsibilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic that broke in the months immediately after this assignment meant that further work in Cornwall was not possible before the assessment submission deadline. This more subjective approach to documentary underpins the more political 'voice' and approach to social and environmental documentary I explore with other people in further work on St Ives and Penwith in Sustaining Your Practice (see plans at the end of this post).

Evolution of the Concept

My starting point and underpinning theme was the work of Rebecca Solnit's discussion about 'getting lost' and the need to open up and explore unfamiliar things without being afraid.

Losing things is about the familiar falling away. Getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.
Rebecca Solnit 'A Field Guide to Getting Lost' 2005

My initial ideas for the assignment in July 2019 had been to do a political allegory about 'Islands' that was developing in my head - see Project 3.2.3 Finding Texts: Island and this is still a future possibility outlined in more detail in Part 5 of this course. But when my partner decided to attend a painting course at St Ives School of Art in November we decided to stay in town rent a low season (low price) holiday flat that actually cost little more than the summer campsite. In my earlier work in St Ives I had been fascinated by the evocative street names: Mount Zion, Bethesda Hill, Fish Street and particularly Teetotal Street (See my black and white photographs that I started to collate in Assignment 2.2: Shutterscapes and are further developed in Project 5.1 Shutterscapes II. When we looked at advertisements to book a flat we found that there was one free in TeeTotal Street - near the island - for the period we needed.

Initially I envisaged a short graphic 'stream of consciousness' work, a sort of cross between Laura Grace Ford's 'Savage Messiah' recommended by my tutor and Richard Littler's Scarfolk. But when we arrived at the flat it was not 'grungy' enough for the expressive black and white aesthetic I had in mind for sketching, and I quickly came to the conclusion that any attempt at documentary satire would require far more in-depth investigation and thought than I had time for in this Assignment. Much of the time it was raining heavily and cold, so outdoor sketching was difficult. As we had come by train we were not able to bring with us the normal load of books and materials to work with. So now many of those first ideas will now be applied to my home city of Cambridge in the Spring in Part 4 'I Love Cambridge'.

After studying Richard MacGuire's 'Here' I had started to think more about something that was based solely in the flat, following also psychogeographic 'one room walks' like Xavier de Miastre's 'A Journey around my room'. Combining my own subjective feelings attempting to face the TeeTotal Angst of being on my own in a 'minimalist' flat for five days, adding on layers of history and influences bombarding me from outside. I considered just doing simple flat black and white 'walking line' pen drawings, but decided in the end to use photography so that I would have a proper record of the flat to work on at home. When I got home I looked again at Jonathon Miller's 'Nowhere in Particular' and looked at the work of Aaron Siskind and decided that it would be really interesting to take a more collage approach.

On location: sketchbook text and Lightroom experiments

The basis of the work is a collaged sketchbook diary that I kept by me and wrote in through they day as thoughts came - and news of Brexit, burning rain forests and the election campaign filtered in its new South West version provided an addictive distraction. I had purchased a small square moleskin Notebook before leaving because I find this square format fits neatly in my camera bag and gives me most possibilities for altering formats as I go along through just masking off bits.

I took photos of objects in the flat and changes in the weather outside through the window with my DSLR camera. I was also lucky enough to have a 'local' next door neighbour whose family had lived in St Ives for generations and I took notes of our conversation and her history of the flat. I also periodically went out for a walk and made friends with a local fisherman who agreed to be photographed in return for my sending him copies. And I attended a local Labour Party campaign meeting as well as collecting local newspapers and visiting the Tate Gallery, library and walking around town and the island for further background to St Ives in winter.

Bringing together all this information while it was fresh in my mind I made a 'minimum' draft Photobook on my laptop in Lightroom, with initial narrative. and processing of the photographs experimenting with different black and white (high contrast as my initial idea), colour (Vivid detail as its opposite to see possibilities I had not thought of) and orange and blue duotone versions (to get an idea of mood - following my work on blue orange and duotone collage in project 3.1). I decided to retain the small square format to give a feeling of claustrophobia and maximum 32 pages so I would need to really hone in on impact for each spread and drastically cut the content.

I also drafted a series of concept maps as I went along with ideas for narrative. but with hindsight I should have spent a lot more time on this - maybe doing one each day to see how my responses evolved over time.

2: Back Home : review, collage/Photoshop experiments and first ideas

When I got home and had my sketching materials, printer, scanner etc I worked into the sketchbook pages making collages of the photos in the order they were taken and looking carefully through the text to remind myself and re-evaluate what I was aiming to do.

When I got home and had my sketching materials, printer, scanner etc I worked into the sketchbook pages making collages of the photos in the order they were taken and looking carefully through the text to remind myself and re-evaluate what I was aiming to do.

I found my added narrative in the first drafts rather heavy. It needed to be either drastically cut or a well-crafted detailed narrative - something that would need some creative writing skill. I decided the text should be either from found text, or overlays of handwritten sections from my diary notes, or cut out text. So I reviewed the collage and selected more text from the collected ephemera and newspapers, adding these to the diary. I then went through the text and photos again to refine the narrative and produced mixed photo and collage spreads with only the text from the collage.

I then looked carefully again at my written text to see what might be added further as hand written overlay in Photoshop to further refine the narrative.

I found my added narrative in the first drafts rather heavy. It needed to be either drastically cut or a well-crafted detailed narrative - something that would need some creative writing skill. I decided the text should be either from found text, or overlays of handwritten sections from my diary notes, or cut out text. So I reviewed the collage and selected more text from the collected ephemera and newspapers, adding these to the diary. I then went through the text and photos again to refine the narrative and produced mixed photo and collage spreads with only the text from the collage.

I then looked carefully again at my written text to see what might be added further as hand written overlay in Photoshop to further refine the narrative.

Annotated images of draft so far.

Click on one of the images below to get the annotation carousel.

Assessment and further plans

January 2020: my assessment sent to my tutor
I learned a lot on this project, but still a lot more to think through. All the apparently disconnected exploratory projects have contributed in some way and my frequent shooting off in different directions has led I think to something much more interesting and with more depth than the initial ideas I had.

When I had completed it, I considered the draft still at the Minimum/Maximum stage and I had become overwhelmed by the infinite possible variants on each image :
- what should be photography, what should be collage, what should be illustration, should I mix, or just stay with one style?
- colours, tones, layering, framing, picture in picture and the potential different meanings communicated even by just slight changes
- layering and collage - I have not yet tried tearing images to layer them physically.
- the ways in which the images can be sequenced - should the narrative go day by day (at the moment it does not), thematically and what exactly is the narrative.
- balance between clarity and simplicity for some images to avoid overload and complex multi-layering on others to provoke thinking in the viewer.
- There are also many images I have not used that could be added or replace those I have included so far in order to present a clearer/slightly different message.

Having got a discreet and time bound set of images and diary notes, I planned to go through everything again in 6 months time once the implications of all the turmoil going on 'outside' is clearer, and:

1. Revisit what I am trying to say and narrow down to 2-3 possible narrative sequences, possibly with a somewhat different image selection.

2. Plan the aesthetic rhythm and sequencing to enhance the narrative based on my experiments so far.

3. Finalise the images and text spreads, redoing many of them in Photoshop.

I considered it "a very ambitious project to take on and it was the first time I had taken on something of this sort. The book is still at the development and experimental stage. I need about a month more to really work through all the images and text again into a focused narrative with more thought through visuals. This will best be done August/September as part of my work on Part 5 when the longer-term fallout from the election/Brexit vote is clearer to think through what I want to say of broader and longer lasting relevance. And I have improved my visual, narrative and Photoshop skills on other projects in Assignment 4 and Visual Research module."

The planned follow up with people in St Ives was not possible because of the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2019 and successive waves that meant we got tired of having to change bookings. Finally we will be going again to Cornwall, including another week in Teetotal Street the end of September to mid October 2022. Finishing this book together with other projects in the assignment and mostly new work will now be part of Sustaining Your Practice.

Further plans September 2021
This small book is very much a 'record of its time', with that time now past and much more besides. But the underlying issues remain.

Feedback from my tutor on this project was generally very positive - particularly because of its restraint and less overworked more spontaneous feel as 'melancholy, downbeat but with occasional flashes of humour, with a strong diaristic sense of days being counted out and small observations made'.

A series of further visits to Cornwall - including Teetotal Street - are planned for SYP. Particularly looking at the fishing and mining industries and the impacts of social, economic and environmental changes on women and men in the communities largely dependent on them. Together with the opportunities and challenges of expansion of tourism.

Any future reworking would need to be very careful not to lose the 'stream of consciousness spontaneity' and responses to somewhat random observations at the time. One way of deepening my sense of memory would be to start by working on a Moving Image version, using the audio and video footage as well as more of the photographs I took at the time: clocks, boiler, wind, rain. A short video uploaded to You Tube could serve as promotion.

Audience feedback will be key, particularly from my Brexiteer next door neighbour in Teetotal Street who gave me a lot of inside information on the house and history of the fishing community there and the surrounding streets. But also from people elsewhere in UK, and internationally to see what things (if any) might resonate with a wider audience. I would then tweak some of the images accordingly. And add some sort of short Postscript - possibly just some scans of newspaper clippings and/or a quote from the neighbour or one of the fishermen who I hope to work with more for SYP.

The underlying aims will be to subtly align my subjective responses to activist questions - particularly the implications for tourists like myself who wish to responsibly contribute to the local economy. But posing questions - there are no easy answers.

Further photo galleries of St Ives that revisit some of the earlier images that provide the background to this book and will be further built on as part of my work in SYP can be found in the photo galleries on my SMUGMUG portfolio page:

Woman Living Lost: St Ives UK

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This third assignment 'TeeTotal Street' produces a small graphic and text book based on a diary and photographs of a holiday flat where we stayed in St Ives in November 2019, just before the Brexit general election.

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My strongest work in Assignment 2.2 Shutterscapes were the Aldeburgh Carnival photos with the focus on 'English quirkiness' and colour style inspired by Martin Parr. I was not able to do new photographs because continuing COVID uncertainties meant the 2020 and 2021 Carnival and other events were cancelled.

Shutterscapes II: Carnival Days brings the earlier 2017 photographs together as two reportage Photo Essays re-processed and re-framed to best represent different aspects of the carnival, sometimes humorous and sometimes intense. These images are now poignantly nostalgic, looking back at a time of freedom before 'carnival was cancelled', a time when mask-wearing in public was a quaint oriental habit and social distancing was anti-social. From a time when the future of the pandemic is still uncertain.

Experimenting with square and also other alternative formats is a very useful exercise I found, even if for some images I go back to the original - and maybe clarify some of the focus and contrast to achieve a new meaning or emphasis.

The work for this module is all part of an anticipated long term connection with Aldeburgh. Early 2022 I intend to send my work on the Carnival to the Carnival committee and see if they give any feedback on what is now something of a historic/nostalgic set of pictures. Once it is again COVID-safe to visit - possibly not until late 2021 because of the crowds once things open up again - I plan to discuss my work with some of the bookshops.

For high resolution of selected images see galleries on my SMUGUG Portfolio site:
Shutterscapes II: Carnival Days
As well as the gallery and sales on Shutterstock from Assignment 2.2 Shutterscapes, I submitted first and final images to Cambridge Camera Club to see it they were suitable for the exhibition. But people thought that although they were good for documentary - life, confusion and coloured chaos being the essence of carnival - they were too busy for Exhibition photographs.

The first image of the women with dogs they thought too confusing - the humorous chaos of being pulled in different directions by dogs and shouting being the point of the photo as documentary.

The final image of the woman with the charity bucket they thought was problematic because the streamers were in front of the woman's face. It would have been difficult to take a photograph without the streamers without disturbing the scene through moving in closer and/or asking her to pose.

Carnival squared - the square crops have a much closer and intense focus. They make me think even more carefully what to leave in and what to leave out. My preconceptions were disrupted by the different format and I often noticed new things that I did not see before.

I think there is potentially an interesting Photobook. Inspired by Shirley Baker's work on the North of England and Bruce Gilden's bold flash street photography of New York. But looking at the draft below again after a break, I think the photographs are too small on the page, and I need to think a lot more about layout with much less frame, and varying the layout as in Assignment 5.2.1 Bridge.

Carnival_BW_coverspreads

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My strongest work in Assignment 2.2 Shutterscapes were the Aldeburgh Carnival photos with the focus on 'English quirkiness' and colour style inspired by Martin Parr. I was not able to do new photographs because continuing COVID uncertainties meant the 2020 and 2021 Carnival and other events were cancelled.

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Garden of Mindfulness: Supporting blog page

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Garden of Mindfulness: Supporting blog page

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The Garden

I have always been interested in wildlife and organic gardening. Until 2018 we had three allotments. But due to travel and illness we were unable to keep it up to the draconian regime imposed by a new allotment committee. The allotment changed from a quiet organic haven shared with bees, butterflies and lizards to a round-upped desert and no-go area for anyone not interested in show-case vegetables.

So our garden is now both vegetable plot and wildlife garden shared with birds, squirrels and also rats. Sitting watching butterflies, feeling environmentally useful when a beehive appeared in the willow tree and mindfully musing about life is restful. Getting up early and listening to the dawn. Noticing unseen beauty in the flickering yellow light through the willow branches, and the light on a plastic dome like a distant sunset.

But so many decisions and power can also be a constant source of constant worry and stress. The rats in particular were a recurrent concern in my sketchbook 'Everyday Edges' diary for April. Replacing our open-bottomed compost bin, stopping feeding all the other wildlife and encouraging all the local cats - possibly coupled with re-opening of more enticing restaurants down the road after Covid restrictions - led to a miraculous disappearance. Luckily before the fledglings and hedgehogs really increased. But why am I worried about rats? What about all the squirrels that no longer seem to be regulating their reproduction on their diet of sunflower seeds and fatballs meant tor the birds? And now the fledglings and hedgehogs are a constant source of worry - is the three legged hedgehog still OK? Is it scratching more than normal? Does it have a few flees, or blow fly? Will it fall in the pond like the one from last year? Or even push one of the other hedgehogs into the pond? Can the baby robin eat the dry mealworms, or can soak them in time for it to eat before the cat comes? Do we want to encourage kestrels and foxes, even if they eat the young blackbirds? Am I becoming allergic to the high pollen levels announced daily on the weather forecasts?

This final project was prompted by a mental need for a project in a relaxed environment to go beyond photographic work and focus on improving my range of drawing and painting skills in both rapid and more considered images, and to help me think through how I record 'stream on consciousness' thoughts and responses to what is going on around me and how I can vary my style accordingly. It brings together:

an animation building on photographs and animation for my moving image personal development course.

a sketchbook of new sketches from May 2021 produced in response to Assignment 2 of a personal development course on Illustration Sketchbooks, and on-line concertina sketchbook courses of Karen Stamper.

experimentation with digital processing of scanned solar plates and monoprint images

The project here is only the beginning of a body of long term experimentation. I envisage eventually a small quirky tongue-in-cheek sketchbook/print-based publication looking at some of the contradictions between visions, realities of life in the garden, alluding also to underlying philosophical questions about living and our suburban role in looking after the planet. And a moving image video charting my attempts to incorporate meditation into my daily life against the backdrop of bio-diverse dramas and carnage in my chaotic and overgrown wildlife garden.

Garden alive: Video diary and moving image

Linked to my sketchbook work I will also keep regular video recordings, on photographs and animation in 2019 for my moving image personal development course. The movie on the left is a soundless work was inspired by Stanley Brakhage. But I took many photographs throughout a summer day that would contribute to a longer and more considered narrative with sounds, inspired also by Maya Deren. This would contrast light, shadows and 'movement in the undergrowth' with shots of cute hedgehogs alongside corpses and devouring kestrels.

Summer Moving Image animation inspired by Stanley Brakhage.

Sketchbook Diary 1 May-June 2021

This first Sketchbook Diary was produced in May-June 2021 for Assignment 2 of Illustration Sketchbooks personal development module. The sketchbook is a place for creative experimental drawing from observation and working with mistakes and the 'accidental' as the basis for producing imaginative work, and starting to explore narrative.

This experimental approach is very much part of my creative process, and I enjoy working with materials and accidents - I started doing this with the OCA Watercolour and Drawing courses. But this is a lifelong process of discovery and exploration that I very much enjoy. In the exercises I experimented with new techniques and media - avoiding replicating similar exercises and media I had tried before. I describe the techniques, challenges and what I like in each sections below.

My main challenge has always been moving from images to more extended narratives. This requires replicating characters that emerged from accidents in a more deliberate way that creates a credible continuity. I need to develop my basic drawing much more to be able to retain the often ambiguous and partial resolution of accidents that leave the filling in to the viewer, while creating sequences of images that tell a story. I am looking forward to thinking much more about different forms of narrative - in Assignment 4 of the Sketchbook course. But also my animation as I finish the Visual Research module, and as I progress with SYP.

Limited Line

This project aims to simplify the image, and let the viewer's brain fill in missing detail. This allows for description of objects, scenes and figures without the need to capture them in minute detail.

The first two drawings continued to work with the hedgehog garden ornament from the still life. But I got the task mixed up with 'taking a line for a walk' and blind contour, mixing the three techniques. But I think the result is quite interesting, certainly enjoyable. But I need to go back to this exercise to subtract lines and try to reduce objects to their bare essentials. Something I plan to focus on with people on location in Assignment 3.

Investigating Processes

This set of exercises experimented with different media - exploring different ways in which they can be used and combined.

1 Collage

The first set of processes I experimented with were different types of collage and cut-out images.

The first series started by just cutting out images dealing with wildlife gardening from Scotsdales promotional material and National Trust, adding pages to make a very wider spread to juxtapose the glossy visions and advertising. This was useful in developing some possible themes, for my own information and could be further developed in Photoshop, but not particularly interesting in themselves.

The second multi-page spread was more visually interesting. I started by distressing the paper through screwing it up in water and leaving it to dray. Interestingly the stiffer glossy cover pages disintegrated almost completely, leaving a quite intriguing set of shapes that I could further work with on my iPad - and also the completely accidental 'Spanish Lady' that emerged from a completely unrelated image shape. The much cheaper, less vibrant middle pages gave a more antique feel to the garden background and text. The resulting collage image could be enhanced somewhat through adjusting lighting, and interesting effects were also achieved through differential focus, or altering a panorama on my iPhone. But these needed more experience and planning. The final image (the first image on the right) was processed and selectively coloured in Silver FX from Lightroom. I was aiming to make the image more 'vintage' and melancholy feel of a captive woman dreaming of escape.

The third set of cutout collages combined some photographs of the yellow Flag Irises that had come into flower - always my start of summer - together with some unsuccessful attempts at drawing the irises with highlighter pen and paintings with swordliner and Acryla gouache. This produced some quite interesting 'jungle' images with irises turning into birds. I experimented with cutting into pages I did not like and pasting them elsewhere like children's pop-up books. These particular examples do not really work, but an idea I could explore more.

Iris: Highlighters, Oil Pastel and Ink

This series continued to work with the irises.

The first drawing experimented more with highlighter markers, the types of mark they make, and how the different colours mix. I like the energy and vibrance of this image.

The second set used oil pastel as coloured paints, layering and scraping out, and adding some lines in Quink ink with a bamboo pen. The diving bird is my favourite of this set, collaged from Iris leaves and a triangle for the head.

The third set used oil pastel as a resist overlaid with Quink ink and drawn over in Indian ink with a reed pen. Collaging the bird from another image on top. I like the textures and quality of line, though the image itself is a bit insipid. I think the dark, rather deathlike SilverFX image is more interesting as an effect that I could try with a different image. Adding a rough frame makes it seem like a Japanese card.

PVA, tissue paper and Ink

This series of images were broadly based on garden themes, but making drawings based on marks left by the materials.

I started by collaging some scrumpled tissue paper in rough leaf-like shapes, then pasting over with a mix of PVA and dilute Quink ink (the brown colour when dried) into which I brushed, drew or dripped in black Indian ink, and scraped out with credit card or pen, refining and following some of the lines and shapes. A bit challenge was that the final images do npt resemble the images I drew because of colour shifts in the ink, and unpredictable settling out of incised marks. The most controllable element were the lines in the crumpled tissue paper and the last lines with Indian ink.

I also produced ghost images (for example the last two) through printing onto tissue paper from the original leaf images, and pasting these onto new pages where ink also seeped through from the pages on the back, or around the bottom of pages as puddles were formed.

I then processed some of the final images in SilverFX from Lightroom to selectively colour and increase detail and constrast. I really like the contrasting textures and ways in which the different types of ink have interacted. I think the vignettes, frames and selective colour of the SFX processing also offer a way to improve the images. Though possibly they could have been cleaned up a bit in Photoshop first.

I enjoyed the process of building on images as they evolved from the materials. I think with a bit more practice, more interesting underlying concepts and more developed observational drawing skills at the back of my mind I could produce some quite powerful images.

Artgraph and Posca Pen

Artgraph and Posca pens were completely new to me, inspired by the concertina sketchbook work of Karen Stamper. They can be combined with other markmaking eg with the collage, PVA and qQuiknk techniques in 2.2.3. But here I wanted to explore the full drawing and mark-making potential of black, grey and white Artgraph square blocks, then just touching up some of the whites with Posca Pen lines.

These drawings were sketched from life across a multi-page spread. I experimented first with dry blocks, varying the angles of edges and points making lines and dragging into shapes. I then tried adding water, painting into some of the shapes and also wetting the arttgraph blocks to draw very dense lines. The orange colour had leached through the paper from the Quink ink on the back. I think this adds quite a bit of accidental interest that I could control if I want through processing in SilverFX and selective colouring.

I need a lot more practice, but I think the medium has a lot of potential for very varied mark-making. It is possible to do quite figurative drawing as in the tree trunk, textured shapes as it some of the leaves and Japenese sumi-e ink styles and shapes. They also give a think mark over tape.

Blind Contour

Blind contour is one of my favourite techniques, used before for Life Drawing. It involves drawing following outlines of an object or scene but without looking at the paper. In order to maintain continuity and not get lost, it is often useful to try and draw with one continuous line as far as possible. It often produces some interesting imagery that could not be produced when drawing in a more 'strategic' manner. It is very good for developing subconscious hand-eye coordination and confidence in just drawing without worrying too much.

The images on the right were drawn 'semi-blind', in that I mostly used one line, linking up objects as I went. But I did look at the paper a couple of times when I got stuck. I find the shapes very interesting - my garden frames look more like drum kits. I like the crowded jumble of the second image. And the shape of the chairs in the final image could be developed into an interesting abstract linocut.

Alternative drawing materials

I have experimented a lot with different materials like tea bags, coffee, treacle, glue, grease, raspberries etc in the past for earlier drawing, painting, book design and moving image modules and this is very much part of my experimentation practise already. Most of the ink/paint alternatives available in the garden I knew already would not work very well. So for this project I decided to focus on the drawing implements exploring the ways they could be cut, used as points or dragged flat vertically or horizontally for shapes, at different speeds and degree of firmness, and different amounts of water to produce different types of marks and images using coloured inks and watercolour.

Iris leaves: (gallery 1) Iris leaves cut flat or sword shape with yellow and blue tube watercolour paint, varying the angle of the point and the side, pressure sometimes flattening completely and different amount of water to vary the saturation and tone. Make energetic expressive sumie-style marks.

Rosemary leaves (gallery 2) rosemary leaves with coloured inks produce much less controllable feathery lines, thicker lines through dragging or pen drawing with the stem.

sticks (gallery 3): uses a thick apple tree twig with quite dilute coloured ink

feathers (gallery 4) thick and thin bird feathers with coloured ink and/or watercolour. The shaft of the feather makes an interesting varied line and stems when dragged on its side. The feather itself can be manipulated to make different types of leaf shape. Feathers also hold a lot of water to make very interesting watercolour marks and textures as in the iris shape.

The coloured images themselves were not particularly successful. The colours do not work, and I need a lot more practise making shapes and lines that balance accidents with a bit more interest. But when processed with selective colour, grain. texturing and framing in Silver FX to enhance the texturing and marks, they become quite effective Japanese-style bird pictures or abstracts. Much of what is enhanced is very accidental as for example the interesting eye in Galler 3 rosemary brush, and the really effective abstract of the last image.

Drawing with Objects

Some artists like Christoph Niemann, Saul Stenberg and Cindy Jerriman incorporate objects into their work. This involves considering the physical properties of the objects: their structure, design, how they are used, their permanence, impermanence, whether they are keepsakes or throwaway, how they can be moved and manipulated, viewed from different angles, piling them up and pulling them apart.

I started by taking a walk in the garden and collecting items as I went, then collaging them in my sketchbook over several pages - the first page of rose petals and ivy, and the last one of vine with convolvulus were the most interesting. I explored these in SilverFX, but they are much too 'floral' for my taste. Though I like the delicacy of colourised convolvulus flower in the black and white image.

The dandelion 'He and She' image and the sword feathers are inspired by Christoph Nieman's leaf cutouts. I converted these to grainy film noir silhouettes in SFX. I find He and She quite interesting in the contrasting stereotypical shapes and textures. I particularly like the dynamic drama of the feather silhouettes - like a Japanese abstract.

This is an approach I would like to expolre further.

Assignment 2: Happy Accidents

This Assignment asks me to select and reframe elements from the previous exercises as the basis for new imaginative interpretation of objects.

1) Pareidolia characters

I reworked some of the pareidolia photos (see the images below) as characters in my sketchbook.

2) Producing Backgrounds

I then selected and produced backgrounds from earlier work and/or some of the pareidolia.

3) Narrative images

I then combined these on my iPad into composite narrative images, further manipulating in SFX where appropriate. I worked on 3 sets:

1. The Tubbies based on the flower pot people (top right)

2. 'The Garden' bringing together the collage garden and the tiger-type image from the tree creature series (bottom right)

3. 'We Are Watching You' based on the tree creatures (mid right)

1: The Tubbies

The flower tubs in my garden have really expressive faces with the pants sticking up like hair. The versions in my sketchbook were too static, though useful as a basis for exploring different possibilities. I developed the images below directly from photographs in Procreate on my iPad.

I quite like these images and would like to develop them further with a proper narrative at some point.

2: The Garden

The idea for these images was to try and juxtapose the romantic vision of contemplation in the garden, with the fears and anger and horror of a lot that is going on in the news - Covid in so many countries across the globe, war in Yemen, Ethiopia etc etc. But it turned into something of a fantasy image - I quite like it as such. But need to think through a lot more what I am trying to say. Probably needs Photoshop.

Original images for the composite.

Composite images with alternative crops on my iPad.

Composite images with alternative crops on my iPad.

3: We Are Watching You

These are my favourite images - the garden alive with creatures that I imagine. My brain is pareidolia gone mad. I see faces and images in anything. Some of these could be developed into narratives. Particularly the woman and the strange pig in the last image.

Composite images with alternative crops on my iPad.

Below is the multipage spread with the photographs overlaid with gouache and PVA.

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I have always been interested in wildlife and organic gardening. Until 2018 we had three allotments. But due to travel and illness we were unable to keep it up to the draconian regime imposed by a new allotment committee.

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VCAP Portfolio 5: Garden Images Portfolio pdf

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VCAP Portfolio 5: Garden Images Portfolio pdf

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'Garden of Mindfulness' is the start of a very personal ongoing body of  work exploring the process of 'conscious creativity' as a means of slowing my life down in a safe reflective space. Experimental sketches, printmaking and moving image work juxtapose my attempts at mindfulness  with dilemmas of managing our often cruel wildlife garden.

Link to high resolution images on SMUGMUG

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VCAP Portfolio 1A: Bridge: solarplate pdf

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VCAP Portfolio 1A: Bridge: solarplate pdf

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VCAP Portfolio 2A Aldeburgh Diaries: Carnival Days: Colour pdf

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VCAP Portfolio 2A Aldeburgh Diaries: Carnival Days: Colour pdf

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In 2020 and 2021 the Aldeburgh Carnival and other festival events in Aldeburgh were all cancelled. Shutterscapes II revisits photographs from the 2017 Carnival - a somewhat nostalgic look back to carefree times before masks and social distancing.

Saturated colour images selected for the 'spirit of carnival'  in the style of Martin Parr.

Link to high resolution photos on SMUGMUG.

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VCAP Portfolio 2B Aldeburgh Diaries: Carnival Days: Black and White pdf

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VCAP Portfolio 2B Aldeburgh Diaries: Carnival Days: Black and White pdf

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In 2020 and 2021 the Aldeburgh Carnival and other festival events in Aldeburgh were all cancelled. Shutterscapes II revisits photographs from the 2017 Carnival - a somewhat nostalgic look back to carefree times before masks and social distancing.

These black and white square images have more of a 'gritty' look with full focus on faces and relationships.

Link to high resolution images on SMUGMUG.

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Reflections in Grey: Supporting Blog page

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Reflections in Grey: Supporting Blog page

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'Reflections in Grey' aims to ultimately be a series of rather rambling but hopefully interesting reflections on 'politics of the sublime' and the 'new normal' post-COVID-19. This is a completely new body of work - black and white photography of 'a journey' round our holiday escape two-room cottage under lockdown in December 2020. I had originally intended to do a street documentary of Lockdown. But in the event there was too much traffic pollution and too little social distancing for me to be comfortable going out except for one daily blow along the edge of the sea, and that only on days when it was not raining. At the same time the austere grey cottage interior had very interesting reflections and angles, and the reflected light through condensation on cold morning windows and the see-through cotton blinds were 'sublime'.

Reflections in Grey builds on the feedback and experience of producing Assignment 3, A Week in Teetotal Street and Assignment 4.2 Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan and Assignment 5.2.1 Bridge. Like Teetotal Street I use a claustrophobic square format and combining personal and contextual narrative in layering and juxtaposition of images with diary extracts, texts of books I was reading and newspaper clippings. Like Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan I work in black and white photography with attention to cropping and framing on the page. But Reflections in Grey is a much more intimate work that takes photographic abstraction, study of light and textures and experimentation with tone, focus and viewpoint much further.

My creative process involved taking many photographs each day, keeping a journal (see below left), collecting clippings from local papers and taking video footage of the changing light, house sounds and traffic noise outside. As the holiday progressed these became more strategic in capturing emerging themes and ideas relating to my diary and also the reading of:

DE MAISTRE, X. 2004. A Journey around My Room, London, Alma Books Ltd.

MORLEY, S. (ed.) 2010. The Sublime, London: Whitechapel Gallery.

SOUSANIS, N. 2015. Unflattening, Cambridge Mass and London, Harvard University Press.

My first version was a rough brainstorm selecting images and matching with texts in InDesign and shown below on the right.

The book so far - still small square format - is shown on the right. This current version revisited the image selection, sketchbook and found texts and re-ordered the narrative to have more of a thematic approach and flow. I cut a lot out, and focused on either minimum text or in some cases a David Carson approach to legibility there the overall texture of the image and text combination is more important for meaning that the legibility of the text itself.

For high resolution images and slideshow of the book, see the galleries on my SMUGMUG Portfolio website:

To see the book on Blurb:

https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/10836872-reflections-in-grey

This is still very much a work in progress. It is unlikely that I will get the Photobook from Blurb before I finalise my assessment submission. I then want to get audience feedback - preferably face to face discussions rather than on-line so that I can ask probing questions I have and discuss differing viewpoints without wasting peoples' valuable time. But on the whole I think this book has potential as a concept, with implications wider than the immediate time and place of Aldeburgh in Lockdown.

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5.2.2 Reflections in Grey, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

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'Reflections in Grey' aims to ultimately be a series of rather rambling but hopefully interesting reflections on 'politics of the sublime' and the 'new normal' post-COVID-19. This is a completely new body of work - black and white photography of 'a journey' round our holiday escape two-room cottage under lockdown in December 2020.

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The River Cam is part of a longer term body of environmental and social documentary work in different media about 'Cam Edgelands' that is central to my practice going forward. The river is just down the road from my house and an area where in normal times I walk nearly everyday for exercise.

The A14 road bridge is one of a number of bridges across the river. On one side the bridge underpass dissects two areas of land that are used by travellers and migrant workers living on a Traveller site relegated to the margins of Cambridge. There is a well-established traveller community that has been there for very many years. Living on one side of the bridge, they use fields on the other side to keep their horses, using the underpass as a transit between the two. Before Brexit they were joined by migrant workers - particularly men - from Eastern Europe. It is unclear how much of the graffiti, litter and broken glass is created by either of these communities, and how much by other walkers passing under the bridge. Graffiti is certainly not confined to this bridge, but is evident in a range of styles also under the other bridges along the river.

The river itself is part of the University rowing Bumps course, and used by town rowers and also leisure boats.

The other side of the bridge is mostly farmland with a footpath linking the somewhat affluent villages of Horningsea to Fen Ditton.

It is a haunting, almost spiritual place. Large majestic concrete pillars with enigmatic graffiti create dramatic shafts of light in the early morning and sunset or dark shapes in the winter fog. Between shuddering bursts of traffic overhead, the water reflects and echoes the drips from the roof. The ever-changing artworks, puddle-life, scatterings of litter and sparkling broken glass tell stories, real and imagined.

I have nearly 2000 photographs of this bridge dating back to 2009, taken with cameras of varying technical quality and with varying technical skill on my part. But, together with my thousands of other images of other bridges and 'edgeland' features on this regular walk, the Bridge will continue to be an important ongoing part of my creative practice. There is also a potentially important local audience and market for physical images: photographic prints and art prints in different printmaking media, photobooks and sketchbooks eg as part of submission to Cambridge Open Studios, and more socially-interested Cambridge residents and tourists. As well as on-line presentation, interest from Cambridge Camera Club and other creative networks in Cambridge.

Thematically in this module, part of my motivation to focus on the Bridge in Assignment 5 is because it shows a body of work around peri-urban 'sublime and grunge' and concerns about poverty, alienation and pollution in the UK where I live. To balance work on these concerns in contexts like Kyrgyzstan where I am an outsider and where attention to the less than beautiful aspects could be misinterpreted as 'rich world complacency and racist prejudice' .

My ability to produce new photographic work of the Bridge has been continually disrupted over the period of this module. Firstly between March 2020 and May 2021 I was not able to go down the narrow river towpath to the Bridge because of Covid-19. The towpath was continually crowded in both Lockdown and more open times as one of the main places that local people went for exercise with very many runners and cyclists accompanying rowers, with very little social distancing and a lot of aerosols being expelled for long distance in plumes that are very alarming in cold weather. From May 2021 the area under the bridge was closed for repairs, and then towpath was closed for all of July/August for final works on a new cycle bridge across the river. The Covid pandemic also meant that it was very difficult to do the sort of documentary research I had hoped.

My focus in this module has therefore been on :

Printmaking: Continuing experiments with photography-based print media: revisiting photoscreen and new images in solar plate.

Photographic creativity: Web galleries that explore alternative perspectives on the bridge, and the way in which different narratives can be created through different selecting and formatting of the images and how narratives and moods can be enhance by different digital processing styles.

Photobook Design: looking at different potential narratives and layout for Photobooks, continuing my earlier interest in juxtapositions and framing.

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The River Cam is part of a longer term body of environmental and social documentary work in different media about 'Cam Edgelands' that is central to my practice going forward. The river is just down the road from my house and an area where in normal times I walk nearly everyday for exercise.

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Losing things is about the familiar falling away. Getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.
Rebecca Solnit ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ 2005

'This question of whether something is fact or fiction
is a reduction of the bookends with which we live our lives'
(Walid Raad 106 Infinity Award)

'Lost Reflections' is a body of creative visual work that explores interlinkages and overlaps between the 'bookends' of my personal responses to places and events and a more political ‘voice’ and activist approach to social and environmental documentary. Focusing on particular places and times, the projects explore the multiple layers and perspectives of subjective experience  and the creative process of selection and framing  particular aspects of  reality from the continual flow and combination of realities  seen, heard, read and researched.

Reflecting on creative  interlinkages and overlaps between multi-layered internal and external 'realities'  is my way of clarifying questions and ways of living in a beautiful but confusing and often distressing world. And inviting the viewer to do the same. It is also my way of becoming more aware of  inevitably subjective perspectives on 'reality', discovering new ways of seeing things and expressing emotions so they free me to act.

Link to Portfolio Page on VCAP Wordpress blog

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VCAP Portfolio 1:                                                   'Bridge': Visions from the Under World, Cambridge.   Photobook 

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VCAP Portfolio 1:                                                   'Bridge': Visions from the Under World, Cambridge.   Photobook 

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The Bridge is a haunting, almost spiritual place.  Large majestic concrete pillars with enigmatic graffiti create dramatic shafts of light in the early morning and sunset or dark shapes in the winter fog. Between shuddering bursts of traffic overhead, the water reflects and echoes the drips from the roof. The ever-changing artworks, puddle-life, scatterings of litter and sparkling broken glass tell stories, real and imagined.

Link to The Bridge photobook slideshow and high resolution images on SMUMUG

Link to Photobook on Blurb

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VCAP Portfolio 3: A Week in Teetotal Street, St Ives Cornwall. Collaged Book

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VCAP Portfolio 3: A Week in Teetotal Street, St Ives Cornwall. Collaged Book

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A Week in Teetotal Street is a collaged diary of a stay in a holiday flat in St Ives in November 2019, just before the Brexit general election. Through juxtaposing and layering photographs, drawings and found text it presents a very personal response to my feelings of claustrophobia and helplessness at the time and doubts and dilemmas of trying to be a ‘responsible tourist’ amid all the social and environmental conflicts in St Ives.

Link to book slideshow and high resolution images on SMUGMUG.

Link to book on Blurb

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Bridge Edgelands, Cambridge: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Bridge Edgelands, Cambridge: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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The A14 road bridge is one of a number of bridges across the river Cam in Cambridge.

Bridge Edgelands is a body of photography-based work about the 'Under World' of the A14 road bridge over the river Cam in Cambridge. It brings together colour and monochrome documentary-style images of human interactions with the built environment and my own framed slices of reflected graffiti to pose questions about beauty and destruction of social edgelands.

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The river is just down the road from my house and an area where in normal times I walk nearly everyday for exercise.

The A14 road bridge is one of a number of bridges across the river. On one side the bridge underpass dissects two areas of land that are used by travellers and migrant workers living on a Traveller site relegated to the margins of Cambridge. There is a well-established traveller community that has been there for very many years. Living on one side of the bridge, they use fields on the other side to keep their horses, using the underpass as a transit between the two. Before Brexit they were joined by migrant workers - particularly men - from Eastern Europe. It is unclear how much of the graffiti, litter and broken glass is created by either of these communities, and how much by other walkers passing under the bridge. Graffiti is certainly not confined to this bridge, but is evident in a range of styles also under the other bridges along the river.

The other side of the bridge is mostly farmland with a footpath linking the somewhat affluent villages of Horningsea to Fen Ditton.

The river itself is part of the University rowing Bumps course, and used by town rowers and also leisure boats.

It is a haunting, almost spiritual place. Large majestic concrete pillars with enigmatic graffiti create dramatic shafts of light in the early morning and sunset or dark shapes in the winter fog. Between shuddering bursts of traffic overhead, the water reflects and echoes the drips from the roof. The ever-changing artworks, puddle-life, scatterings of litter and sparkling broken glass tell stories, real and imagined.

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The river is just down the road from my house and an area where in normal times I walk nearly everyday for exercise. The A14 road bridge is one of a number of bridges across the river.

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VCAP Portfolio 2: Aldeburgh Diaries:  Reflections in Grey Photobook, Suffolk. Photobook.

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VCAP Portfolio 2: Aldeburgh Diaries:  Reflections in Grey Photobook, Suffolk. Photobook.

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Reflections in Grey is a  photobook of reflections and readings from 'a journey around my room' in a holiday cottage in Aldeburgh during the second Covid-19 Lockdown in December 2020. In a claustrophobic small square format it juxtaposes images of the rooms with 'slices of textured light', texts I was reading and newspaper clippings as an internal narrative about coping with Lockdown and also increasing external urgency of pollution and climate change.

Links to Photobook slideshow and high resolution images on SMUGMUG Portfolio site

Link to book on Blurb

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This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

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Woman Living Lost, St Ives Cornwall: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Woman Living Lost, St Ives Cornwall: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Woman Living Lost is a body of personal and documentary work from holidays in St Ives, Cornwall. It focuses particularly on dilemmas of ethical tourism and its potential social and economic contributions as well as negative impacts. It is part of a longer body of social documentary and personal work about St Ives and Penwith in Cornwall, UK.

Details of the projects are on my VCAP assignment post:
Part 2: Text and Image: Woman Living Lost.

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Personal Reflections on St Ives, Cornwall, viewed from a holiday house in Teetotal Street.

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Aldeburgh Lockdown Escape, Suffolk, UK: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Aldeburgh Lockdown Escape, Suffolk, UK: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Aldeburgh Lockdown Escape is a body of work based on a two week holiday in Aldeburgh, Suffolk during the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020. At the time when the very first vaccinations were being started, people were relaxing their behaviour in anticipation of a removal of restrictions over Christmas. And before the horrendous second wave in January and February 20201.

‘Reflections in Grey’ also references indirectly two 'Lockdown Landscapes' Photo Essays in colour and monochrome taken on the few days when I went out.

For details of development of the work see my VCAP Assignment blog post: Aldeburgh Lockdown Escape

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Aldeburgh Lockdown Escape is a body of work based on a two week holiday in Aldeburgh, Suffolk during the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020. At the time when the very first vaccinations were being started, people were relaxing their behaviour in anticipation of a removal of restrictions over Christmas. And before the horrendous second wave in January and February 20201. It builds on and contrasts the much more colourful and upbeat 'Aldeburgh Escapes' images of carnival and morning light in Shutterscapes II Carnival 2017 .

'Reflections in Grey' is a black and white Photobook of 'a journey' round our holiday escape two-room cottage. I had originally intended to do a street documentary of Lockdown. But in the event there was too much traffic pollution and too little social distancing for me to be comfortable going out except for one daily blow along the edge of the sea, and that only on days when it was not raining. At the same time the austere grey cottage interior had very interesting reflections and angles, and the reflected light through condensation on cold morning windows and the see-through cotton blinds were 'sublime'.
To preview or order the Photobook on Blurb click here.
The reflections also reference indirectly two 'Lockdown Landscapes' Photo Essays in colour and monochrome taken on the few days when I went out.

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Aldeburgh Lockdown Escape is a body of work based on a two week holiday in Aldeburgh, Suffolk during the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020. At the time when the very first vaccinations were being started, people were relaxing their behaviour in anticipation of a removal of restrictions over Christmas.

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Reflections from the Mountains of Heaven, Kyrgyzstan: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Reflections from the Mountains of Heaven, Kyrgyzstan: SMUGMUG Portfolio Page

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Reflections from the Mountains of Heaven is a  body of documentary and creative photographic work from a 6 day stay in Baizakh village in the T'ien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan.

It is part of a series of ongoing projects about  'Journeys as Beginnings'  from my work-based travel in Africa and Asia  developing photobooks and interactive experiences with input from local and global audiences in Kyrgyzstan and UK.

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between China and Kyrgyzstan.

They called them 'Ti'en Shan' - Mountains of Heaven.

Baikzakh Village in the foothills of the T'ien Shan Mountains in Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

These photographs were taken over 6 days in May 2016, fitted around consultancy work to facilitate a participatory workshop on empowerment and gender with women and a few men from different rural areas of Kyrgyzstan They are very much an outsider view of things I noticed and chose to record - only a snapshot of life at particular times of day - dawn, midday and evening time - and one of the kindest times of year - late Spring.

Although they do not constitute an in-depth 'photo-documentary', I saw more than most tourists would see and my contextual information on peoples' perspectives from the workshop is more in-depth than most outsiders would have. Some of the images gained new meanings in the light of the political turmoils in Kyrgyzstan in 2019, increasing urgency to address climate change, and potential implications of the recent events in Afghanistan.

Discussions with audiences in Kyrgyzstan were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the country in waves. The photographs are only the beginning of a dialogue with potential audiences in Kyrgyzstan, UK and elsewhere on what the images could usefully represent as part of creative documentary of Kyrgyzstan, and reflection on underlying philosophies and politics of life in a globalised world.

For more about T'ien Shan see : Encyclopedia Britannica: Tien Shan

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Reflections from the Mountains of Heaven, Kyrgyzstan

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between China and Kyrgyzstan. They called them 'Ti'en Shan' - Mountains of Heaven. Baikzakh Village in the foothills of the T'ien Shan Mountains in Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

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VCAP Portfolio 4: Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan, Kyrgyzstan. Photobook

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VCAP Portfolio 4: Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan, Kyrgyzstan. Photobook

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Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan brings together black and white natural and human landscapes to inform and pose questions about the beauty and also difficulties of  life in Baizakh.

The photographs were taken in my spare time around a consultancy to facilitate a workshop on gender and participation. The main time I had was in the very early morning for walks in the mountain, or just strolling down the lane where I lived on the outskirts of the village. Watching the changing emerging sunlight on the peaks of snow. Then the gold to red sunset in the evening as quiet settled again after a period of noise and activity.

My overwhelming impression of Baizakh at the times I saw was one of emptiness - a largely closed world with rutted mud streets of streaked light and shadow. I saw few people on the street - men were going to work in the very early morning, women who stayed seemed to be busy in enclosed courtyards  of houses. Children at school. But this was only the outside - I knew from my participant friends at the workshop that the inside worlds were very different. Worlds of poetry and song where everyone was invited to join in.

Link to photobook slideshow and high resolution images on SMUGMUG

Link to book on Blurb

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Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan brings together clack and white natural and human landscapes to inform and pose questions about the beauty and also difficulties of life in Baizakh.

My overwhelming impression of Baizakh at the times I saw was one of emptiness - a largely closed world with rutted mud streets of streaked light and shadow. I saw few people on the street - men were going to work in the very early morning, women who stayed seemed to be busy in enclosed courtyards of houses. Children at school.

There was a very dramatic storm with dust and driving rain, sun glinting on the mosque and trees before and after the clouds passed.

The main spare time I had was in the very early morning for walks in the mountain, or just strolling down the lane where I lived on the outskirts of the village. Watching the changing emerging sunlight on the peaks of snow. Then the gold to red sunset in the evening as quiet settled again after a period of noise and activity.

But this was only the outside - I knew from my participant friends at the workshop that the inside worlds were very different. Worlds of poetry and song where everyone was invited to join in.

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Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan - Zemni

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Light in the Shadows of T'ien Shan brings together clack and white natural and human landscapes to inform and pose questions about the beauty and also difficulties of life in Baizakh. My overwhelming impression of Baizakh at the times I saw was one of emptiness - a largely closed world with rutted mud streets of streaked light and shadow.