Alternative photography

During those heady days of freedom between lockdowns I explored the many varied realms of alternative photography. Since I was about 12 years old I’ve owned a camera, and for the past 20 years I’ve made a good living and a good name for myself in social photography. Unfortunately, being digital photography, my work resulted in my being desk-bound for much of the week between shoots. I’m not really built for desk work, I’ll be honest - so the magic of alternative photography as an art form seemed to be a great way forward what with all the weddings and parties being postponed. As soon as we were allowed out I took my home made beer can and tin pinhole cameras into the city of Norwich and beyond to see what I could create with them. I love the distortion you get with the beer can - the cylindrical shape of the cans bring about something akin to a fisheye lens. Here’s my ‘camera’ collection:

I have to say that during this period in 2020 and ’21 I found my perspective on so many sides of life being questioned. That’s still going on; looking back on some of these images I real-eyes the depths of my questioning.

It was good to be back in the dark room. When I say dark room, it was really just a blacked-out bedroom for developing the light-sensitive photographic paper into prints in the old-fashioned way that I so loved during my years at Norwich Art School. There’s a magic to this way of working that you just don’t get with digital photography - watching the image appear in the developer tray is alchemical in all the ways. Digital photography is very dry, very instant, and while that’s good for the business I was in back in the day, its process lacks that magic, as well as the great rewards of delayed gratification.

I started putting my images out on instagram and received lots of likes and interest - I was even interviewed on a couple of podcasts.

Pinhole photography can be tricky. When you’re afraid of maths as I am, working out the exposure length isn’t easy. So I just got myself in the zone and let go of trying to control each exposure. Amazingly, some really worked out! 

While I’m no longer practicing these methods of traditional photography (the reasons for which I’ll put in a later blog post) I’ll soon be offering some of my favourite prints of work from my current portfolio for sale. They’ll be available from my shop. Do contact me if you’ve any questions or comments.  I’ve not opened comments up on this site because, to be honest, I’d like to spend as little time as possible at my desktop.  I’m sure you understand.  There’s true nature to be explored!