January 24th
Garlic Crusher
The past few days have been chilly so I have not wanted to go out. So I started Week 4 of weird photos with this garlic crusher. Put in front of a macro lens this wooden tool takes on a monumental quality. I particularity wanted deep shadows to help describe the forms of the device. I also softened the image to give a bit more of an air of mystery.
January 25th
Orange Tuesday
For those who remember it used to be Orange Wednesday at the cinema in the UK, cheap tickets to get the punters in. However I took this shot on a Tuesday and the Orange Wednesday promotions are something from the before times.
This sign should be telling car drivers that this is a residents parking street and a permit is needed, however not every one agrees with the scheme. Signs are regularly defaced or in this case completely over painted. Theoretically this means you could not be fined for lack of a permit as there is no visible warning notice. I liked the blank faced simplicity of the image.
January 26th
Scrabble
Down in the Broadmead shopping area of Bristol someone has adapted the mosaic tiles on what was a branch of Barclays Bank. An interesting idea and message that others have subverted to their own ends.
Shop Window Ghosts
Wandering around the city I keep getting a sense of closing down. Large chain stores are shuttered and empty and this small unit. It was a sandwich shop that offered very low cost food but now another causality of the pandemic probably. The premises has windows on two sides so it is possible to look through to the street. The reflections from the glass give people passing a ghostly quality when photographed. I think I will taking shots here again.
January 27th
Shadow Land
Some days it is the way light falls across an everyday object that attracts my eye as was the case with the image above.
January 28th
Yellow Black
A yellow fabric and a black rectangle with the sun streaming across them. I took those basic elements and had a play in Affinity Photo. I liked the abstract angular arrangement but felt it needed something a bit more organic. Rummaging through my back catalogue and found some shots of the tendrils on a cucumber plant and they fitted the bill perfectly. I think this image has sort of 1930’s Bauhaus feel.
Crossing A Dark Space
ICM or Intentional Camera Moves are a great way to generate abstractions. Could this be an eye or the mouth of a sea creature?
January 29th
Brutal Hotel
This rather unlovely concrete slab is in fact an hotel in the centre of Bristol. In fact from this angle on the wide end of the lens it does have some kind of charisma. It reminds me of a fortress or a castle of sleep and eating.
January 30th
Skull In A Plastic Bag
I picked up this Day Of The Dead skull in Mexico. It sits on the shelf and then every so often it gets in front of the lens. At the moment I seem to be looking at the world through screens of glass of plastic, at a remove from the world. In 2015 I did a 365 days of photography project and I was determined to concentrate on people in the street.
Post pandemic I feel wary of pointing a lens at a stranger and I seem to be being drawn to abstract imagery more than in the before times. I have also noticed that were as before I was taking very direct photos now I’m often looking through windows or some kind of screen. Is this an effect of lock down and mask wearing?
