Site under construction … Take Two!

I have had a calamity with my website, and lost all my photos! It is the media library that has disappeared and so all of the text and the formatting has remained in place. I do plan to reinstall all the photos which, luckily, are all sitting safely on my computer, but it is likely to take many months, and – let’s be honest – may never get done in full…

Meanwhile I have decided to explain on the ‘about’ page in case anyone is confused. It has been intriguing to see what it says, as I wrote the page initially when I set up the website. It talks about my interest in photography and the city centre. Starting my project from a “place of suspicion” as I watched the former bus station – now Central Square – radically alter in usage and architecture.

I’ll keep the original words and post them as a separate item.

However it is amazing how I have changed since those first days way back in 2018. I am still recording the changes at Central Square, but the truth is that I have about 12 rolls of undeveloped film waiting for my attention, and probably another three or four films worth which are developed and scanned in to the computer, but have yet to make it into zine form.

Meanwhile I haven’t been idle. I have taken an unforeseen turn towards printmaking. After a fitful start as a member of the Cardiff Print Workshop following a couple of beginner courses, I have found a new direction in black and white linocut. The results of which are recorded (and not) on this website as much as my photography has.

In many ways it is not so different. It is analogue, black and white, involves working in negative (at least in the darkroom stage for photography), and appeals to my aesthetic. As a photographer I was always prone to stop the enlarger right down and ramp up the contrast as far as I could go. In a way black and white linocut has just enabled me to push that tendency so much further.

So, in short, I am still doing my work recording the changes in Central Square. But I have to squeeze it in between the linocuts. I have every confidence that the two practices will merge over time. I intend to use my photography as base material for printmaking. Cyanotype is an obvious choice for that. Meanwhile who knows where I’ll go?!!!