Contents
Dr. Charles Ashston - ‘A Risky Business’ Jenny Rees Mann - ‘Rose’s Point of View’ Eric Williams - ‘So Close to Armageddon’ Bob Oakley - ‘Doorways of Tallin’ Tessa Mills - ‘Confusion’ Clive Haynes - ‘Scarecrows’ John Hoath - ‘Abstract Photography’ Maddy Pennock - ‘Tranquility of Flowers’ Alex Isaacs - ‘Uncertainty’ Barrie Glover - ‘Locked-down, Locked-out, Locked-in and Looking-back MkII’
Dr. Charles Ashton A Risky Business
In India it appears that the value of life is much lower than in the west. People eek out a living with little or no regard for health and safety. In this series on environmental portraits you will see absence of food hygiene, close proximity to fire, dodgy electrics, exposure to toxins, and a lack of guards, protective equipment and even appropriate attire. Much work is done by hand or with limited traditional equipment like the charcoal bellows. This is not a throw-away society and you can see the signs of "make do and mend". This set of images has been selected to have similar lighting and limited colour palettes and in due course I intend to produce a social documentary panel.
Bidri Production
Exhaust Repairs
Garlic And Ginger
Irkat Weaver
Making Barfi
Metalwork
Oil And Steel
Poultry Processing
Recycling
Shocks
Tinning
Jenny Rees Mann
Rose’s point of view
Our Social Isolation began in the first week of March. It brought minor inconveniences, but one major sadness - being unable to see our baby granddaughter Rose Dilys. I see videos of her; first she rolled, then crawled and now almost stands. She should be here crawling around our garden so until that happens I am building up an alphabet of pictures of what she should have seen - ‘River Cottage’, garden and fields in 2020 from her point of view. And that point of view is about six inches, to a foot, above the ground. This project involves a lot of lying full length on damp ground but it’s extraordinary what you see down there - a tiny insect on a blade of grass, a bee’s eye view of its flight path. It would be lovely to think that by the time I get to ‘Zinging Zinnias’ we shall be reunited. I plan to make the pictures into a Blurb book called ‘From Rose’s Point of View’ and give it to her when she gets older.
Fingers crossed.
Agile Aquilegia
Brilliant bluebells
Confident cowslips
Delicate daffs
Effervescent Elodea
Foraging foxglove
Graceful grasses
Eric Williams
So Close to Armageddon
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war and Armageddon. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter a future invasion. An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in July 1962, and construction of a number of missile launch facilities started later that summer. Meanwhile, the 1962 United States elections were under way, and J F Kennedy had denied charges for months that it was ignoring dangerous Soviet missiles 90 miles (140 km) from Florida. The missile preparations were confirmed when an Air Force U-2 spy plane produced clear photographic evidence of ballistic missile facilities. Kennedy then ordered a naval blockade on October 22 to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba. The US announced it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. After several days of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. The Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement to avoid invading Cuba again. The Cubans are very proud of their historic victory over the US and the open air missile museum is popular in Havana.
So Close_1
So Close_2
So Close_3
So Close_4
So Close_5
So Close_6
So Close_7
So Close_8
So Close_9
Bob Oakley
The Doorways of Tallin
Tallin is a port on the Baltic coast and is the capital of Estonia, which until recently was controlled by the Soviet Union. Its history goes back to the early medieval period when it was part of the Hanseatic League of traders. The Old Town is a hotchpotch of cobbled streets containing many large houses, which in days gone by were the residences of traders, nobles and other wealthy residents. These houses give a clue to the wealth of former occupants and have a wide variety of impressive wooden doorways. There is a sense of history down every street in this very atmospheric place, which in many respects is the best preserved Hanseatic town centre in the world.
Bob Oakley 01 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 02 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 03 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 04 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 05 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 06 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 07 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 08 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 09 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 10 Tallin Doorway
Bob Oakley 11 Tallin Doorway
Tessa Mills Confusion
The first days of lockdown were confusing. I found a way of expressing this was to experiment with in-camera double exposure. By doing a 90 degree shift I felt that an element of unease, unbalance and strangeness came into the images.
1. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 477.
2. Confusion. Tessa Mills 447
3. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 452
4. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 446
5. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 454
6. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 464
7. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 463
8. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 462
9. Confusion. Tessa Mills. 482
Clive Haynes
Scarecrows
I always have several topics and themes ticking over and ready to be added to when the opportunity arises. One such is ‘Scarecrows’ and my contribution this month brings this a little more up to date with some fresh images. I find scarecrows to be both singularly strange and oddly fascinating. In general they fall into three categories. ‘Working’: those employed upon a farm. ‘Domestic & Decorative’: a gentrified and prettified version of ‘Working’, considered not to frighten animals and those of a nervous disposition. ‘Feral’: frequently characterised by quirky repairs and splints, they appear to have no particular function and to have strayed beyond their original meadow, market-garden or allotment. Each scarecrow possesses an almost ‘golem-like’ character. That’s to say, when created they’re given a specific task and come what may; they will persist with their basic instructions despite limbs detaching, replacement parts, changes of attire and bits falling off. Doggedly they stand in all weathers until nought but their ragged skeletal essence remains. Even then one feels their purpose will continue, somehow impressed upon the land. My evolving collection features examples and variations from the three principle categories.
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-1
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-2
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-3
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-4
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-5
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-6
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-7
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-8
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-9
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-10
Clive Haynes Scarecrows-11
John Hoath
Abstract Photos
These images have been created from photos taken in the garden or the house or on limited exercise excursions locally during the lockdown period. The ones I call my “paint sample technique� took several hours each to construct. I have endeavoured in these to capture the essence of the scene. I have used the colour harmonies, structures and light that existed in the original photographs. The titles give clues as to the subject matter depicted. These obviously are not traditional photographs; perhaps they should be labelled digital art? Does it matter? Where are the boundaries?
In an Alpine Garden
Legless
My First Home Delivery
Variations on a Theme
Everything in the Garden is Lovely
Found Art along the Canal Tow Path
The Eyes Have It
Maddy Pennock
Tranquillity of Flowers
Under lockdown it has been difficult to be inspired or to have time to take photographs or even be creative, but with the glorious weather the flowers, both wild and cultivated, have offered some solace to me. I am no horticulturist but always appreciate colour and form, and the first three images had a strange painterly quality reminding me of Georgia O’Keefe’s flower paintings, so I chose to process them in her style. Image 2 and 3 show the difference in processing, leaning more to her style. Image 4 - I rather enjoyed the muted colours of the shaded daisy against the warm brick wall. Images 5 – 8 are daisy-like flowers of varying colours, with image 7 having that similar painterly feel. Finally, the buttercups give me the sense of Summer, freedom and joy which is uplifting at this difficult time.
1_Purple Bloom_
2_Painterly Feel_
3_After Georgia O’Keefe_
4_Shaded Daisy_
5_Caught on the Wind_
6_Pink_
7_Delicate Bloom_
8_Delicate Blue_
9_Buttercup_
10_Buttecup_
11_Buttercup_
Alex Isaacs
Uncertainty
These images suggest a feeling of anxiety and underlying uncertainty that is connected with the current Corona Virus pandemic. At this time it is difficult to envisage the new permanent normal. How much of it is down to chance, luck, good planning, fate, adherence to instructions, taking note of scientific advice or a number of other factors is up for debate at the moment. Although there is doubt and fear there is also trust and hope that in the end things will settle to a new normality.
Alex Isaacs 01- uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 02- uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 03- uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 04-Uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 05-Uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 06-uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 07 -uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 09-uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 10-uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 11- uncertainty
Alex Isaacs 11-uncertainty
Barrie Glover
Locked-down, Locked-out, Locked-in and Looking-back MkII
This time last month I had not used my camera for several weeks due to lockdown, but that changed as soon as my cactus collection began to flower. I recently produced a collection of panels using images of plants that I took between 1998 and 2002, and some were just about good enough for that purpose. However, I decided to have a determined effort to update my plant collection images and that is what I have been doing in recent days, I have taken several hundreds of photographs in just few days. This collection departs from cacti however, and I have put together a hodgepodge of old and some not so old, fiddling and diddling images.
Bishop Henry Philpott
Catherine Double Exposed
Cosmos
Curved Rain Streaks
Dandy Bubbles
Fungeyes
Green Alkanet
Indian Paintbrush
Orchids in Ecuador
Seattle Sculpture
Walking the Prom
Worcestershire Camera Club Contemporary Photography Group ‘Viewpoint’ Vol. 1 © June 2020