rainbow on my floor

name label

First day of school?

coast to coast

From the 5th to the 16th of August I walked 192 miles from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hoods Bay in North Yorkshire. The Coast to Coast was created by Alfred Wainwright and he saw the route as a suggestion and inspiration for others to find their own way from the Irish Sea to the North Sea.

do that

stained glass

Yesterday I visited York Minster, there was so much to see - architecture, stained glass, memorials, metalwork, needlework and more, and these are the last photographs I took. The reflections of stained glass upon the stone floor caught my eye but my camera was unable to capture what my eyes perceived  The blue glass reflected purple on the floor, but when I looked through my camera it was the same blue as in the window. Something was disrupting light and colour, my eye/brain perception and the camera lens. I'm currently reading a book called Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Finlay and unsurprisingly my colour awareness is heightened and this set the tone of my wonderings around the Minster. The book is fascinating and explains the skills involved in discovering and capturing colour throughout the ages, the trail, error, alchemy, science and trading that brought powders, dyes and pigments to and from our shores. 

new work

Army of Me, 2015
Large Format Photograph
Epping Forest

doreen

In the 1970's my Auntie Jessie lived in Clapton and it was a two bus trip to get there from Loughton. We changed buses at Bakers Arms and on the return journey our bus stop was opposite a shop called Doreen. I remember waiting for the 20 in a shoe shop doorway and gazing across at Doreen, it was special because it's my mum's name and we though that was the bees knees! Its getting on for 40 years since I made this journey and Doreen has remained a landmark over the decades and I've marvelled that it was still going strong. Its displays and shop front were dated and I wondered about the clientele, today I googled and discovered it was one of the first shops to cater for transvestites and is famous. 

Sadly, after 60 years the shop has recently closed, I saw cardboard boxes in the empty windows when I passed on the bus this week and went back today to photograph the shop front before it is dismantled. My mum will be 80 in a few months, we made these journeys when she was in her 40's, as I am now. I can't wait to tell her about the shop. So goodbye Doreen, you have been a constant since my childhood and I'm so sad to see you go.