Tern Valley Photography Project

The first phase of this project aimed at young people from North East Shropshire resulted in a small exhibition of their work at the Taste of the Town Show in Market Drayton on July 5th. The response to the work has been overwhelming, so much so that the display is now on at the local library until the beginning of August. I was really proud of the effort the young people put into this part of the project and was delighted to hear that the Taste of the Town Company will be funding a further session with them over the summer. I look forward to that very much as well as to working with the two other groups we have funding for. If you want more information about this project please get in touch on 07932 194779.

The Quarry, Shrewsbury

Each year The Quarry is the venue to a series of outdoor concerts. This year featured the talents of Katie Melua and a spectacular 80s night. For those of you old enough to remember them, the show included Toyah, Carol Decker, Heaven 17, Nick Heyward, Midge Ure, Bananarama and Rick Astley. It was quite a performance with top rating from yours truly being awarded to Midge Ure. I was again honoured to be an official photographer at both these gigs as well as the Jools Holland concert at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. Jools as usual put on a terrific show with guests Ruby Turner and Marc Almond doing their bes to drive away the drizzle! I must thank IML Concerts for their support. Images from these gigs will follow soon.

The Photographic Image

I’m really proud to announce that several of my images are currently being prominently displayed at The Photographic Image Gallery in Shrewsbury. This includes some of my recent portraiture work as well as a range of unsigned reprints for those of you looking for a real art bargain! If you are in Shrewsbury be sure to check out the Gallery in The Parade Shopping Centre, 14 The Parade, St Mary’s Place Shrewsbury SY1 1DL. It is one of the few commercial galleries dedicated to quality photography outside London.

The Drawing Room, Retford

Dates will be announced soon for my exhibition at The Drawing Room in Retford. This will be a landscape show with several new images getting their first public appearance. Limited editions are for sale!!

SPACE

Watch out for details of when you will be able to see (and buy!!) some of my work at the new SPACE Gallery in Ellesmere in Shropshire. SPACE (Supporting Potential Arts & Crafts Enterprises) is a new venture for artists and craft-workers managed by Dee Morgan and has a valuable social inclusion agenda for North Shropshire. 

Fit For The Future

 

 

 

Monday June 30th was a special day in the history of health provision in Staffordshire. On the day that a major reform agenda for the NHS was introduced by the government, the North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust, the Stoke-on-Trent Primary Care Trust and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust celebrated ‘Fit for the Future’, a guide to the modernisation of health services in the region. I was privileged to be the official photographer at the event which was held at the Moat House Hotel at Festival park in Stoke-on-Trent. Staff from the hospitals and clinics, general practices, universities, social services and service users representatives had the opportunity to talk to specialist staff and project managers involved in the multi million pound modernisation programme and to hear presentations from the chief executives.

The Butterfly Ball

It was a great privilege to be the official event photographer at the Butterfly Ball held at the Craxton Wood Hotel near Chester on June 28th. The Ball celebrated the 60th anniversary of the North West Cancer Research Fund and was sponsored by the Employment Law Advisory Services, Boodles and Dot Art.

The NWCRF injects much needed finance into essential research into cancer via the Universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Bangor. Since the Fund began in 1948, the same year in which the NHS was created, it has raised well over £22 million.

We are delighted to make our own donation to the Fund and look forward to many more years of working together with all the dedicated staff and volunteers.

Forthcoming Shows

There has been an alteration to the dates on which I will be exhibiting and selling work in the Darwin Shopping Centre in Shrewsbury. The revised dates are now 19th – 26th July and 27th September – 4th October. I apologise for any inconvenience in the change to the dates but look forward to seeing you all in July and September.

The dates are yet to be confirmed, but I will be taking up an exhibition slot in Retford in Nottinghamshire later this summer. Please come back for more details.

Smell the Coffee

Every now and again there comes along a rare gem of a book. For me such an occasion was ‘A Quiet Belief in Angels’ by Roger Ellory. The author has achieved a rare quality for me. He has produced a story as powerful and haunting as Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. Lee’s singular masterpiece has always defined a sense of childhood and growing up in a world in which danger and adversity walk hand in hand with innocence and the sense of fun and adventure a long hot summer’s day can bring. It was a very visual book and so too is Ellory’s. His descriptive powers place you right there in the sweltering heat of Georgia, amongst the smells of the kitchen and the dust laden landscape. You feel the prickly heat as the story graphically unfolds before you. Being a huge fan of 1940s and 1950s movies the images often form in black and white in my mind before exploding into full colour with the all too graphic revelations of the book. This is not a book for the feint hearted. It makes you gasp. It makes you rub your eyes as you would if you saw these events happening before you. For a photographer with imagination this is a masterpiece of a book.

Las Vegas

I recently attended a wedding in Las Vegas as the official photographer. I’ve never been to Vegas before but like most people, I had an idea of what the city was like because of the movies. Many of my assumptions were based on modern day legends: Elvis, the Rat Pack and heavyweight boxing world championship bouts. These all conjured up images in my mind about what to expect but didn’t tell me much about the city.

Several things hit me all at once on arriving. Firstly the heat. Vegas must be the hottest place I have visited and the wind that came off the desert didn’t refresh – it added to the discomfort. Secondly I was hit by the scale of the hotels. they are massive beyond belief. Thousands of rooms built over casino after casino. All modern comforts from air conditioning to waitress service at the slot machines. It wasn’t just one gambling hall; each was a whole series of casinos. Thirdly it was the openness of the city – the Strip is six lanes in each direction in parts and that is a wide road! And then there are the demolition sites adding to the exposure you feel walking down the road. Hotels, many of them part of the historic landscape have simply been knocked down and the site rebuilt or in the process. Land is of a high premium here and it doesn’t do to get sentimental about it.

I’ll write more about Vegas in my next few entries and include more images. I created the panoramic view of a part of the Strip at New York New York which as the song tells us is so good they named it twice. All the landmarks of one of the world’s most famous cities are here – the Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Manhattan Bridge. The soft sepia tone suited the subject matter for me; whenever I think of images of the city I recall the work of Lewis Hine and the building of the Empire State.