Any preference ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been to a couple of good photography exhibitions lately, and have it on good authority that the photographer involved in one of them shot over 20,000 rolls of film! Like OMG, it's no wonder he ended up with enough shots to fill a gallery ..

I very rarely shot more than one image of any of my shots. They really were 'one-offs' in the best sense of the word. But, looking back through my negatives, I see that, now and again, I did shoot more than one image at a scene. Today's photographs are an example. Doddington Lane, in Salford, circa 1978. Two versions, and I can't decide which I like better. Any preference ..?

Cold water

 

 

 

 

 

 

The heatwave is back and it's going to be another hot one today. Thirty-eight degrees is the forecast. (That's 100° if you're an American or my Mum!) The garden is fried, as am I from trying to keep it watered. On Saturday night I was at an event two hours from here and it hammered down. Here? Not a drop. When will it end? I've had enough of summer now. I yearn for cooler evenings and crisp autumn walks, woolly scarves and seeing my breath condense in a cloud ..

In the meantime, it's another day of hunkering down and doing not a lot. Little Lisa had the right idea .. a bath of cold water and an ice-lolly. Mind you, this shot was (probably) taken in 1977, and 'little' Lisa will now be in her fifties. Sadly, I'd have to think twice about taking a photograph like this today. The 'right-ons' have poured cold water on good old innocent street photography ..

SNAP!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I passed rather a pleasant hour or two yesterday, amusing myself after I'd read an article in The Times ..

There's a well-known photographer called Tom Wood - affectionately known in his adopted home town of Liverpool as 'Photie Man' - who's being honoured with a big exhibition at the city's Walker Art Gallery. The newspaper article featured over twenty of Tom's pictures, taken back in the late 70s to early 80s, the same period of time I was working on my own 'street photography'. What a nice shot, I thought, as I admired his picture of a group of Scouse scallies leaning against a metal railing. It reminded me of a photograph of my own, the shot you see here of three 'Teddy boys' in my own home town of Eccles. Snap! I chuckled. How interesting ..

And then .. what a nice shot, I thought, as his picture of two girls on a bus brought a smile to my face. That reminded me of another shot from my archive, a worried-looking mother smoking on a bus as one of her children slept and the other tried to evade boredom.

And then .. what a nice shot, I thought, as an image of two Passport-photo machines put me immediately in mind of a remarkably-similar picture of my own.

And then .. 

Well then, folks, I worked my way through the entire set of his photographs and realised I had a similar-looking photograph to every one of his. I felt rather pleased to have (in my opinion) comparable work to one of documentary photography's masters, and I've put them onto a web page, if you fancy taking a look. 

I'd love to hear your opinion ..  

SNAP!

There ought to be a law against it ..

I must confess I didn't actually catch the official announcement itself but, it seems, there's been a ground-breaking change in some of the laws of this country. From - well, who knows when? - it has become ok again to use your mobile phone whilst driving. I mean, wasn't that a silly law anyway? Fancy 'them' trying to stop you making a call whenever you wanted, even if that meant dialling a number whilst doing 75 in the outside lane, or texting whilst doing the school run of a morning (Hey, you'd know when to stop 'cos you'd feel the kid bump into the car!) No, the thing that's bad now in this country - really bad, tut-tut, shame on you - is .. taking photographs in public! I mean, what is it with all these fecking photographers, walking about taking photographs on the street whenever they bloody well feel like it?! Jeez!...

So, here's today's story. I'd just finished hanging my photographs at the Deli-lama cafe and Linda, the owner, was chatting with me about the work. We were looking at my old shots of Eccles. 'Do you photograph anything like this now?' she asked. I shook my head, sadly. 'I'd get lynched if I tried to take some of these pictures now..' I said 'People just have completely the wrong perception of photographers these days.' (Ironic, when every Tom, Dick and Harry is now carrying a camera with them on their phone!) Anyway, off I went, and just happened to be walking past a guy who was using his phone whilst driving. I lifted the camera, pointed it at him. The guy carried on down the road, turned round, and came back after me. 'Oi..' he grunted through the open window 'Are you a paedophile?' I couldn't believe what I'd just heard and so, against my better judgement, I smiled as I turned back to face him. 'Why? What are you?.." I said 'THREE?..' 'What you taking pictures for?..' he snarled 'Because you were using the phone whilst you were driving.' I said 'It's illegal in this country!' 'Are you a paedophile then?' he repeated. 'Do you actually know what a paedophile is?' I asked 'What you taking pictures for..' 'Because you were ....'

I'll stop there. The conversation became rather predictably repetitive after that. I walked off and the ape drove away, probably looking for somewhere to whack off after proving his manhood (Apehood?) so boldly! I've joined a Facebook Group called 'Taking photographs is not a crime'. I hope another one starts soon called 'Driving whilst using your phone is definitely a crime! It's dangerous, it's inconsiderate, it's selfish and it's yet another sign of how standards are slipping in the UK!' God knows, there should be a law against it!...