Disgrace

I have tried to avoid urban conurbations for this project but wandering past Brayford Pool at the side of  the University yesterday I came across this sorry sight and had to share. I don't think I need to say more.

Are we there yet?

So, this is where I officially kickoff my new side-project about the Lincolnshire coast...

I have also added earlier images of the coast to a separate page. I'll be creating a separate blog site for this project soon (it will work in Safari on the iPad as well). In the meantime, this is my first foray - Mablethorpe.

Welcome to Fantasy Island

I have never had a proper family holiday although, up to the age of about 10 we did go for days out to the seaside. My enduring memories of the seaside are the paraphernalia, smells and architecture. This is a 57 year old selfie, It's been a while but I'm pretty sure this is the exact spot in Mablethorpe where my father took the original. The elephant was bright pink, of course!


A wide selection of inclusive and health conscious confections in the cock shop

Captain Jack's crazy golf

An Englishman's home is his bouncy castle

It's a sundial!

Foreign shells sold on English beaches - not very brexit!

Hook's Island crazy golf. There seems to be a huge amount of pirate themed crazy golf.

I'm guessing a lot of older folk traditionally retire to the seaside and they bring their dogs with them. Even the smallest towns have several mobility shops, pet clothing shops and charity shops.

The sun never sets on the Empire. I wonder where the first ever seaside holiday destination evolved?

Observation deck

The new observation centre at Gibraltar Point

Heads or tails?

Believe it or not this is where the car actually landed!

Back to the Wash

Yesterday, after 30 years I returned to The Wash (see original pic's here). The emerging issue of the day was global warming. Today, 'one' of the issues is plastic in the oceans. The amount of plastic present didn't seem huge however, on consideration I was never more than 10 feet from a plastic bottle on a 5 mile walk and the wash is about 90 square miles of tidal flats, that adds up to a lot of plastic.


What it should look like

New project

Recently, I unsuccessfully applied for a St Hugh's Arts award to document the Lincolnshire coast. Perhaps documenting the entire coast was a bit too wide ranging and difficult to a handle in a 100 word application or perhaps the application was rubbish.

So, I think I'm starting to form something a little more concise. Quite a lot of photographers have documented the seaside (Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones etc) but, they have mainly concentrated on people and sociological aspects. Rather than the voyeuristic (I know, all photographers are voyeurs) and class observations, I'm more fascinated by the architecture and visual paraphernalia. It's always been the thing for me ever since I was kid in the 1960's. There's a kind of attractive dishonest beauty about it. I'm thinking this the could be the way forward, here's a couple to start with...

Phenomenology

You may have noticed that I sometimes catch my own shadow in the picture. I'm not the first or last photographer to do this though we all probably have slightly different reasons for it. In my case one reason is technical and the other existential yeah, I know what you're thinking! In winter the sun is always low in the sky and I mostly use a wide angle lens so, it's sometimes inevitable. The other reason is that any form of qualitative research or inquiry (in this case documentary photography) is by it's nature phenomenological. As soon as you look through a view finder, the choices you make become a part of the images so, I often like to leave myself in there as a bit of fun. Here's a few from the archive...

Steeltown

Fact-time folks! The steel industry at Scunthorpe was established around 1860 because of the local availability of iron ore, limonite (bog ore) and limestone. Scunthorpe itself was developed as a steeltown to service the growing industry. The plant itself is huge approximately 7 miles in circumference and 3 miles end to end.

To photograph it in its entirety is not really practical so, I have made it incidental and concentrated on a less seen aspect...


Opencast mine at the side of the works

Open cast mine, I'm guessing it's a sand deposit. I like the way they avoided the trees.

Nature finding a way. Actually having extensively photographed the landscape surrounding Llanwern Steelworks I again found it strange that this is where you see more wildlife than in most parts of the countryside. It's probably due to disruption and creation new habitat and that the landscape is mostly devoid of people due to its unsightliness and the blanket of low level noise from the works.

Truelove?

West Lindsey District Council granted planning permission to Truelove Property Construction Ltd, to clear acres of woodland which was home to Great Crested Newts for an executive housing development and tennis courts.

Truelove Property Construction Ltd

Apparently, the newts were moved to a location nearby and temporary plastic barriers (shown in photo) put in place to keep them from returning. Not quite sure this is true love!

Ed Sheeran v the amphibians

National roll-out of new approach to great crested newt licensing

Scarecrows