Contents
Dr. Charles Ashton - ‘She He Them’ Bob Oakley - ‘The Decay of Prague’s Main Railway Station’ Jenny Rees Mann - ‘Form Adapted for Function’ Geoff Hicks - ‘Not Going Out’ - continued Angie Hill - ‘Cross Roads’ John Hoath - ‘This and That’ Tessa Mills - ‘Fuse Box’ Clive Haynes - ‘Tales from the Washing Line’ Karen Dewson - ‘Helmsdale Petrol Station, Scotland - September 2018’ Paul Mann - ‘Papplewick - A Temple to Water’ Lucy Allum - ‘Seasonal Change’ Maddy Pennock - ‘Over The Hills and Far Away Same Walk – Different Camera and/or Lens’ - continued Peter Young - ‘Autumn Street Life in Worcester’ Richard Sarginson - ‘Images - Produced by the Author - but Interpreted by the Observer’ James Boardman-Woodend - ‘Autumn in Wyre Forest’
Dr. Charles Ashton She He Them
As with most human activities in the summer of 2020 Trans Pride was affected by the COVID 19 pandemic and influenced by political unrest and the Black Lives Matter movement. This set of images covers the event with some portraits and candid shots at the start, close to Hyde Park, moving on to the march and finally the speeches at Parliament Square. I have tried to capture some of the spontaneous emotions and mood of the day as well as the spectrum of sexuality that was apparent and the adaptation or lack thereof to the pandemic. The images have been enhanced by blending a toned black and white layer with the original which I think sympathetically improves the subjects.
Charles Ashton 01 In Great Shape
Charles Ashton 02 Kick Out The Tories
Charles Ashton 03 She He They
Charles Ashton 04 Double Embrace
Charles Ashton 05 Watch Out TERFS
Charles Ashton 06 Attraction
Charles Ashton 07 Reluctant Marcher
Charles Ashton 08 Along For the Ride
Charles Ashton 09 Black Trans Lives Matter
Charles Ashton 10 Sex is Work
Charles Ashton 11 Trans Live’s Matter
Bob Oakley
The Decay of Prague’s Main Railway Station
The Czech Republic, originally part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire embraced the Art Nouveau style in the years before 1914. The main railway station in Prague was opened in 1871 and between1901-1909 new station buildings were erected in that style. It is one of the most significant art nouveau buildings in the country and one of the final architectural glories of the old empire that broke up after the First World War. The name of the station has changed over the years to reflect changing political realities but what has not changed is the magnificent entrance hall. Sadly when I visited Prague in 2015 the exterior was in a very bad state of repair with bodged remedial work to some of the features and much of the fabric in terminal decay.
Bob Oakley_01_Prague Station street view
Bob Oakley_02_Prague Station Entrance Hall
Bob Oakley_03_ Stained Glass Window
Bob Oakley_04_ Prague Station HEAD 1
Bob Oakley_05_Prague Station HEAD 2
Bob Oakley_06_Prague Station exterior figures
Bob Oakley_07-Prague Station HEAD 3
Bob Oakley_08_Prague Station HEAD 4
Bob Oakley_09_Prague Station HEAD 5
Bob Oakley_10_Prague Station neglect
Bob Oakley_11_Prague Station fronting main road
Jenny Mann
Form Adapted for Function
This is a series of garden flowers, photographed against plain backgrounds (to avoid distractions) and using simple lighting. All the work is done in camera so there is little to do in Lightroom apart from a bit of cropping and minor saturation adjustments. We are living through stressful times; I sometimes pause for a moment or two in the garden, and just enjoy the beauty of the perfectly adapted creations we call ‘flowers’.
01 jennyreesmann Cosmos 1
02 jennyreesmann Cosmos 2
03 jennyreesmann Mauve Rose
04 jennyreesmann Pink Rose 2
05 jennyreesmann Cornflower
06 jennyreesmann Gladioliusjpg
07 jennyreesmann White Peony
Geoff Hicks
Not Going Out - continued
I continue to explore how the current Covid-19 pandemic has affected various aspects of ‘normal living’. These images were made between late June and the end of August. By this time everyone was settling into a bit of a routine with temporary arrangements becoming permanent and we were sort of getting used to things. Even Worcester Cathedral had adapted to the new circumstances. I believe in the importance of documenting this time.
01 Geoff Hicks Welcome To Cleethorpes,
02 Geoff Hicks No Groups
03 Geoff Hicks Think
04 Geoff Hicks Deserted
05 Geoff Hicks Cloisters
06 Geoff Hicks Worcester Cathedral
07 Geoff Hicks Barnsely
08 Geoff Hicks Chesterfield
09 Geoff Hicks In Thought
10 Geoff Hicks Reflections on Social Distancing
11 Geoff Hicks Hillsborough
Angie Hill Cross Roads
"Choose joy. Choose it like a child chooses the shoe to put on the right foot, the crayon to paint the sky. Choose it at first consciously, effortfully, pressing against the weight of a world heavy with reasons for sorrow, restless with need for action. Feel the sorrow, take the action, but keep pressing the weight of joy against it all, until it becomes mindless, automated, like gravity pulling the stream down its course; until it becomes an inner law of nature. Delight in the snail taking an afternoon to traverse the abyssal crack in the sidewalk for the sake of pasturing on a single blade of grass. Delight in the tiny new leaf, so shy, so shamelessly lush, unfurling from the crooked stem of the parched geranium. The little joys; those are the slender threads of which we weave the lifeline that saves us." Maria Popova. My images form the start of a collection of visual notes, small things I see that delight me visually; small things that give me joy. These images were taken at a cross roads, the disintegrating white lines embellished by the bright autumn leaves. We must seek these tiny jewels nature gives us as signs of hope.
01 Angie Hill
02 Angie Hill
03 Angie Hill
04 Angie Hill
05 Angie Hill
06 Angie Hill
07 Angie Hill Road & leaves panel
John Hoath This and That
This month’s contribution is work for a variety of projects that I have in mind. They are for books that I am considering making. These include a book of panoramas which will run across two pages per image and a book of poetry accompanying my photographs. I can tell you that the photographs and book binding will be easier to produce than the poetry.
J Hoath 01 I’ve heard it befor
J Hoath 02 Lost
J Hoath 03 River
J Hoath 04 Little Defence
J Hoath 05 Collage
J Hoath 06 Angles
J Hoath 07 Peleton
J Hoath 08 Yellow Jersey
J Hoath 09 Homage
Tessa Mills
Fuse Box
Long story cut short ..... Water got in to the fuse box of Jim's Mercedes car. This totally closed down all the systems and the car was pronounced ‘dead’. A new fuse-box had to be installed and I was given the old dead one as a memento. I was amazed at the price - and also at the beauty of the dead fuse-box. I imagined how the fuse connections might have looked when they were alive and kicking. Even turning it into a sculptural object it remained a very expensive item!
1. Tessa Fuse-box 27
2. Tessa. Fuse box 34
3. Tessa. Fuse-box 36
4. Tessa Fuse-box 38
5. Tessa Fuse-box 46
6. Tessa Fuse-box 41
7. Tessa. Fuse-box 57
8. Tessa. Fuse-box. 55
9. Tessa Fuse-box. 68
10. Tessa. Fuse-box 47
11. Tessa. Fuse-box. 40
Clive Haynes
Tales from the Washing Line
One of my on-going projects is ‘washing lines’. There’s something attractively seductive about an oblique, sneaky view into people’s lives through this colourful fluttering of semiotic semaphore. It’s as if the jostling raiments need to speak, each with a tale to tell. Pegged, splayed and hanging, every garment is arrayed without shame or favour. Thus exposed, we’re allowed a brief frisson of voyeuristic insight into lives we’ll never know. We gain an understanding about colour preference, the number and perhaps, the relationship between adults and children, their sporting allegiances, their gender, age, size in socks, underwear condition and what sort of bed-linen is preferred. Through this colourful zephyr dance, the clothes speak about the lives of those who don them they travel, work, play, celebrate and perhaps, mourn before the shirt-tails, vests, trousers, skirts and unmentionables once again tumble in the washtub.
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-1
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-2
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-3
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-4
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-5
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-6
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-7
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-8
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-9
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-10
Tales from the Washing Line - Clive Haynes-11
Karen Dewson
Helmsdale Petrol Station, Scotland - September 2018
Like asbestos in buildings and arsenic in paint, we will look back and wonder that we used to burn fossil fuels. They’re a huge contributor to greenhouse gases from extraction, through refining, to end use. These fuels pollute both sea and land. As a ‘stealth killer’ they emit invisible micro particles harmful to humans. The current pandemic has seen demand collapse and the oil industry markets are crashing, but perhaps it was about time…
Karen Dewson 01 Helmsdale Petrol Station, September 2018
Karen Dewson 02 Petrol & Diesel
Karen Dewson 03 Pumps
Karen Dewson 04 Pumps
Karen Dewson 05 Petrol Pump
Karen Dewson 06 The Office
Karen Dewson 07 All Cards Welcome
Karen Dewson 08 Diesel Pump
Karen Dewson 09 Pumps
Paul Mann
Papplewick - A Temple to Water
Enter into the temple of water and marvel at its decoration. There is no altar in this temple, just two enormous steam-driven pumping engines, majestic in their shining steel, copper, brass and paint finishes. The incense here is the sweet smell of oil and a faint hint of sulphur. Visited by engineers and the occasional group of dignitaries this was not a temple for the masses. Behind the luxuriant rooms lurked darker areas where men toiled shovelling coal into huge furnaces to produce the steam energy which powered the monster engines. All this devotion and care was for the purpose of providing water for the City of Nottingham. The brainchild of engineer Marriot Ogle Tarbotton, it was constructed in 1881. The engines were made by James Watt in Birmingham. The designer of the lavish Gothic Revival interior is unknown. .
01 Papplewick
02 Papplewick
03 Papplewick
04 Papplewick
05 Papplewick jpg
06 Papplewick
07 Papplewick
08 Papplewick jpg
09 Papplewick
10 Papplewick
11 Papplewick
Lucy Allum
Seasonal Change
I really enjoy the fact that we get such good seasonal differences in this country and the feeling that nature carries on regardless of what else is happening. These images were taken at Batsford Arboretum, giving us a glimpse of some of the changes that occur in autumn.
Lucy Allum 01 Acer by a Stream
Lucy Allum 02 Tree
Lucy Allum 03 Underneath a Magnolia
Lucy Allum 04 Cornus Kousa Fruit
Lucy Allum 05 Acer
Lucy Allum 06 Colourful trees
Lucy Allum 07 Funghi
Lucy Allum 08 Buddha
Lucy Allum 09 Firey
Lucy Allum 10 Amongst the Trees
Lucy Allum 11Looking Out
Maddy Pennock
From the series: Over The Hills and Far Away Same walk – different Camera and/or Lens
This is a collection of images taken on the same walk over different days during the Covid-19 pandemic. I started this series in April 2020 and the walk is a track running parallel to the B4424 in rural Worcestershire, from my home in the hamlet of Clevelode. Over the time I have witnessed the seasons changing in this familiar territory. By restricting myself to using a different camera and/or lens I have deliberately changed my viewpoint. The result has been a collection of varied and different images from each walk.
1_Maddy Pennock_Drama in the Sky
2_Maddy Pennock_Dandelion Seed Head
3_Maddy Pennock_Stones in the Road
4_Maddy Pennock_Changing Landscape
5_Maddy Pennock_Criss Cross 2
6_Maddy Pennock_Rural Idyll
7_Maddy Pennock_Abandoned Sandal
8_Maddy Pennock_Half Tree with Merlin
9_Maddy Pennock_Grass Seed Head
10_Maddy Pennock_Dock Leaves
11_Maddy Pennock_Water Droplets
Peter Young
Autumn Street Life in Worcester
Gradually street life in Worcester returns to normal, although what normal means for some would be beyond comprehension for others. Shops which closed earlier in the year have been repurposed, redecorated and are now in a completely different business. Street entertainers have returned to their old pitches, and shoppers have adapted to social distancing, sort of, and wearing face coverings, well, some of the time. Now that people gain entry to buildings scanning codes with their phones, one has to wonder whether this practice will ever be abandoned.
Peter Young 01 River Island Attitude
Peter Young 02 Save the Birds
Peter Young 03 NatWest Lady
Peter Young 04 Tony Pavement Artist
Peter Young 05 Pavement Artist
Peter Young 06 Carphone Warehouse
Peter Young 07 Crowngate
Peter Young 08 Busker
Peter Young 10 Holiday Dream
Peter Young 09 Man on Bench
Peter Young 11 The Hive QR
Richard Sarginson
Images - Produced by the Author but Interpreted by the Observer
The digitised image allows a higher level of author-inspired control over the final image. My intent is to produce a reaction of liking or loathing - indifference is the enemy of art.
Richard Sarginson 01 Coffee Time
Richard Sarginson 02 Gems Spiral
Richard Sarginson 03 The Extinct Gem Bird
Richard Sarginson 04 To Go Forward or Back in an Alien World
Richard Sarginson 05 Steel in your Backbone
Richard Sarginson 06 Fountain
Richard Sarginson 07 In The Garage
Richard Sarginson 08 Headwater
Richard Sarginson 09 Lampshade Attack
Richard Sarginson 10 Ferrero Rocher
Richard Sarginson 11 Millipedes
James Boardman-Woodend
Autumn in Wyre Forest
I have hardly ever done any ICM work so I thought it was time to grasp the nettle. All the following images were taken in the Wyre Forest on a single afternoon this week when the light varied from dark and moody to dappled bright sunlight. Some images were fairly short exposures and others a bit longer. A couple are double ICM exposures. Most involved moving the camera at the start of the exposure and then trying to hold it stationary before the exposure finished. I not sure if I like these but I offer them up as a first attempt. My wife who is a fair & honest critic said they reminded her of having a bad migraine.
J B-Woodend ICM 01
J B-Woodend ICM 02
J B-Woodend ICM 03
J B-Woodend ICM 04
J B-Woodend ICM 05
J B-Woodend ICM 06
J B-Woodend ICM 07
J B-Woodend ICM 08
J B-Woodend ICM 09
Worcestershire Camera Club Contemporary Photography Group ‘Viewpoint’ © November 2020