A recent brief visit to France afforded me the opportunity to photograph some French Boat Registration Numbers to add to my meagre collection of two. That collection has now grown to twelve and will hopefully, in the coming months, expand further. For the current Gallery click here.
Breton Shutter Dogs: Breton in style and name but found all over northern France. These little hinged beauties are made from cast iron or brass and are used to hold back traditional opened window shutters. In the design of a traditional Breton ‘shepherdess’ (or sailor) they can take various forms, depending on the particular manufacturer, and can be found in various states of dis-repair or decay. Sometimes, like the metal hinges, they have clearly out-lived the wooden shutters that they were once supposed to hold back. And sometimes the years of rust and layers of paint have all but obscured their original form. Although only a very small and apparently insignificant (but practical) architectural detail, they have a fascination for me that is all their own, as they are so typically ‘French’. Click on any of the images below to see the full collection , so far . . . . .
I have recently organised these images into a digital e-book with a historical introduction – see here
Brief Encounters – a new arrangement: I am in the process of re-arranging my Brief Encounters photographs on the website, to make more sense of them. The main change is to divide the photographs into groups, according to location – e.g. encounters in Paris, France (mainly Normandy), Brittany, Munich & Venice, and a new set from Cornwall. This is a project which is on-going and I still have many photographs to process and add to the collection. It is my intention to create a series of slideshows (one for each of the galleries) and to properly caption each of the photographs to give a brief explanation of every encounter.
Paris
France
Brittany
Munich & Venice
Cornwall
Boat Numbers: Not quite train-spotting but not far off! Somehow though boat registration numbers are a little more romantic, and importantly are somewhat more visually interesting and colourful than train numbers. That these boats have registration numbers means that they are able to sail out of British territorial waters, and that they are linked to their home port. Click on any of the images below to see my gallery of boat numbers.
Waves: There is something endlessly fascinating about watching the sea breaking on the shore; whether it is fierce storm waves crashing onto the rocks or the gentle ripple of waves lapping on a sandy shore – in the first instance the experience can be exhilarating and in the second it can be therapeutic and calming. Whatever the science behind wave formation and the tides I am more than happy to soak in the experience with my feet firmly planted on dry land. Clearly for others the experience is best enjoyed while actually on, or in, the water. Still photographs can obviously only capture a small part of the all-round sensory experience of standing at the water’s edge but hopefully, through these photographs, I can share my fascination with the visual qualities of waves breaking on the sea shore. Click on one of the images below to view my larger gallery of wave photographs.
All the photographs in this collection were taken in various locations along the south coast, including Hayling Island, Stokes Bay (Gosport), Lee-on-Solent, Hill Head, Titchfield Haven (Hampshire), St Ives and Godrevy Point (Cornwall).
Seaside Numbers: It has been my observation that house numbers in coastal areas are somewhat more interesting and varied than those in inland areas, at least in those parts of England and France that I have visited. Maybe this reflects a greater sense of individuality and independence by those living on the edge of land. This collection though is about numbers which have a particular and obvious seaside connection in terms of the visual imagery. Click on any of the images below to see the larger collection – Numbers with a Seaside Theme
Classic Paris numbers: I guess we can thank Baron Hausmann and Napoleon III for these classic numbers from Paris. Not sure when I will next be able to go back and add to the collection, but hopefully one day. For more examples in this nascent collection click on any of the images below to see my gallery of classic Parisian numbers
A new number series: Not sufficient for a collection yet, but a start at least. I am still debating what to call the set, but in typical deadpan style will probably go for something like “Numbers – worn on the back”
Bricked Windows: I have long been fascinated by the idea of bricked-in windows – their infinite visual variety, their ironic, or at least contradictory nature (can a window still be a window when one cannot see through it?) their meaning, significance and causation. On the latter point, the so-called ‘Window Tax’ introduced in 1696 by William III (to pay off national debt and to fight wars in Ireland and on the continent) is an obvious explanation for many of the bricked-in windows that we see in our towns and villages. The tax which was effectively a progressive one, was relatively easy to assess, and was only repealed in 1851 (156 years after its inception and nine years after income tax was effectively introduced). The fact that so many householders were prepared to forego light, air and views to reduce their tax bill shows a significant degree of popular dissent (by the property owning middle classes – so nothing new there then), and was therefore a clear political statement of its time. The Candle Tax (1709 – 1831) and Brick Tax (1784 – 1850) clearly also have a bearing on the Window Tax explanation. For properties with bricked-in windows built after 1851, we have to look for other explanations which probably have more to do with internal modifications and changes of usage to the property. One is left to wonder why remaining bricked-in windows in houses built before 1851 were not returned to their former state when the tax was repealed. The window, whether bricked-in or not, represents a structural problem for the house builder (i.e. how to support the weight of the wall and roof structure above the ‘opening’) and thus we have the variety of solutions visible here in the form of lintels and arches. For bricked-in doors and doorways we have to look for alternative explanations, but ones which also must reflect social and political change in a similar way to the bricked-in windows. For more examples of bricked-in windows see my “Bricked Windows” Galleries, and for bricked-in doors see my “Bricked Doors” Gallery.
French Bricked Windows: If the Window Tax is not a full explanation for all the bricked in windows in England, then it is probably also not a comprehensive explanation for all the bricked in windows in France, although a similar tax also existed in France from 1798 to 1926, Impôt sur les portes et fenêtres (French). There is something of an irony in this – the revenues raised in Britain from the window tax are often quoted as being used by the government to fight off the threat from the French. It would be interesting to know if the French Government used their window tax revenues to bolster their war chest. By clicking on any of the images below you can see a Gallery of French Bricked Windows.
Cormeilles
Rennes
St Malo
Quimper
Villedieu-les-Poêles
SIGNS OF COLOUR: I have recently added many more images to my “Signs of Colour” Galleries which have links to four slideshows on the same theme. The “Signs of Colour” Gallery is a random collection of signs or images, with somewhat mixed messages, in which colour plays a larger, or smaller, part, making the visual equivalent of the saying “it’s not a question of what you say, but rather the way that you say it”. Colour clearly has a significant rôle to play in non-verbal, visual communication, but there are clearly times when we get it wrong. Our world is confusing enough as it is without the addition of visual and verbal illiteracy. Missed and misplaced apostrophes abound here, along with graphic ‘faux pas’, unintended juxtapositions, and ambiguous meanings to confuse the innocent bystander. Over the years I have found myself drawn to the irony, contradictions and/or pathos of these images (or is it bathos), as if they were somehow a metaphor for life itself, and our inability to communicate effectively with each other. Click on one of the images below to view the main “Signs of Colour” Galleries and follow the links for more galleries.
SANDSCAPES: I suspect we can all remember that childhood thrill of arriving at a sandy beach with all the play prospects that it offered; the desire to take shoes and socks off to get closer to experience the warm feel of the soft dry sand on the soles of one’s feet and skin. The sight of a sandy beach emerging from the grassy tufts that mark the transition from the land to that magical kingdom of sand before the sea, is still a thing of wonder for me. I am sure the allure of that province full of childhood promise never quite leaves us. Wet from the sea or dry from the sun, sand has no real equal as a material to conjure up those childhood memories of building castles and making footprints; of sieving sand through one’s fingers and burying limbs or imaginary treasure; of building up or digging down or simply drawing or writing messages in the sand. View my “Sandscapes Gallery” here
NUMBERS: I have been collecting images of found numbers for some fourteen years. It is difficult to remember now exactly why I started but it has become compulsive since. It party stems I think from my interest in typography. I have also long been interested in the contrast between the abstract notion of a number and its physical appearance e.g. in the form of a house number; i.e. the contrast between form and content. Numbers have a mathematical meaning and they also have a magical, symbolic, personal and emotional meaning. This collection illustrates that they also have an infinite variety in terms of their visual appearance. At one level a number is a cold, logical and anonymous thing. If we were referred to as numbers rather than by our names we would consider it to be highly impersonal and de-humanising, and yet these numbers have visual character and personality, they are not anonymous, but instead make a statement and take on a substantial visual identity and individuality that belies the literal content. These numbers have many other attributes than just their numerical value; their visual and tactile qualities supersede their nominal qualities and yet it is hard not to place them in numerical order and look for some sort of completion to the set. They may also be about the formal elements of colour, shape, space, tone, form, texture and composition but one still reads them as numbers in this sequence. The numbers here (and in my wider collection) are statements of individuality or collectivity, of taste (or lack of it), and of ownership and identity. Click on any of the numbers below to see a larger collection in my Number Galleries
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS is a project based on several brief visits to France (mainly on family holidays) where I set myself the challenge to photograph some of the people (complete strangers) who, however briefly, featured as part of my experience of the visit. It also gave me the chance to practice my faltering French to ask if they minded me taking a photograph of them as a souvenir of my visit. I am very grateful that all those I asked were not only helpful in making my visits more enjoyable, but were also willing participants in this project. Click on any of the images below to go to the Brief Encounters Galleries
UNNAMED STREETS: There is something very sad about a missing road name whether it be the result of theft, vandalism or neglect. The road or street name persists on a map and in the minds of those that know it, and the posts that once supported it may survive to tell the tale, but to the stranger passing by it signifies a loss of identity, a lack of community care, neglect and abandonment. The well maintained and presented quality street name sign is a statement of civic pride and well-ordered public services, of prosperity and status. The damaged, neglected or vandalised road name sign betrays a lack of all these things. The missing road name sign is like the ultimate insult to the area and its inhabitants. Click on one of the images below to go to “The Road With No Name Sign” Gallery
Selsey
Fareham
Brockenhurst
Fareham
Fareham
Emsworth
Emsworth
Swanage
Portchester
Fareham
Fareham
Burridge
NAMED STREETS: I first became seriously interested in photographing street names through doing family history research. Census records tell us where our long forgotten ancestors lived, and often the street names themselves tell us much about the history of the area in which they lived. My own father was born and brought up in a two up and two down terraced house in Fort Road, Bermondsey. I have never visited the place or seen the house, which I believe no longer exists, but the name of the road has a significant resonance in relation to the stories that my father told me of his childhood. I have yet to discover the origins of the road name as there is no obvious sign of a ‘fort’ there on Google Earth.
Behind many street names there is often such a hidden history. The street in which I currently live derives its name from the long lost industrial buildings which dominated the local landscape. The road name (and the products produced) is all that is left of this industrial past. Likewise other road names can refer to ancient trades and tradesmen, events and historical figures, rights and rituals, battles and achievements that are commemorated in the given road name. The street name can derive from the particular location but it can also be to do with the events of the time in which it was officially named (or re-named).
The street name can carry hidden messages about the people and the place, but then so does the sign itself, through its condition, style and general state of repair. The setting and immediate environment has something to say to those who take the interest to ‘read’ the body language of the road name and the way that it declares itself to the passing world. Click on any of the images below to see the Street Name Gallery.
FLOORSCAPES: Lost & Found – I am sure that we are all, unfortunately, only too aware of the general litter and rubbish that defiles our streets, pavements, paths and hedgerows, in town and country – the ubiquitous fast food packaging, fag ends, cigarette packets, Coke cans, crisp packets, et al – but, as a self confessed ‘urban beachcomber’, I am sometimes surprised by the variety and unexpected nature of some of the items that I come across, abandoned on the floor, during my travels; a squashed jigsaw puzzle, a single long woollen sock, a child’s dummy, a squashed panda toy, or a single disposable glove with pointing finger, as in the examples here. In many instances there is clearly a story behind each of my finds, and a poignancy about some of the items lost, dropped, discarded or abandoned. Unlike the traditional beachcomber picking up interesting pieces of flotsam and jetsam left behind on the beach, after a high tide, I am quite understandably loathe to even touch any of the unusual items that I find on the ground, but am nevertheless attracted to photographing them in an attempt to understand their deeper meaning or significance, or simply to record their banality or incongruity. And hence this disparate array of floorscape photographs, more of which can be seen in my Floorscapes Gallery
WALLS: Walls may not at first seem the most interesting photographic subject matter but as the old saying goes . . .”if only walls could talk”. . . If we consider for a moment that they might do at least some of their talking visually then these walls have much to say for themselves. For more examples click on any of the images below to go to my “Walls I Have Known” gallery.
House numbers in France (when compared with those in England) tend to reflect the more subtle cultural and political differences between our two countries. Some towns and villages that I have visited in France have settled on a kind of ‘house style’ for their house numbers, to identify and celebrate the local community, what might be termed civic pride. There is, of course the distinctive and ubiquitous white numbering on blue enamel style to be seen throughout large parts of France that speaks of national pride, but towns like Bayeux and St Malo (for instance) have their own very distinctive style of number ‘plates’, and in Quimper faience style decorative ceramic tiles abound. But there are always idiosyncratic exceptions to the ‘rule’ and nowhere is this more pronounced than in coastal locations where the exception tends to become the rule and where sometimes weirdly individualistic and distinctive house numbers are much more in evidence. In some of the Petites Cités de Caractére the house number style would appear to be strictly controlled (as it would be in a National Trust village like Lacock, here in England, for instance) but there are always intriguing exceptions to be found – statements of individuality and minor acts of rebellion, and uniqueness. And then there is the wear and tear; the rusting and peeling; the cracking and crazing that create the patina of ageing to add meaning, significance, character and personality to the otherwise anonymous number.
The Number Galleries just keep coming on my website – First, as an extension of my “Numbers in Colour“, there is a gallery of “Numbers in Pastel Shades“, then a gallery of “Numbers in Tertiary Colours“, and “Numbers in Monochrome“, and then a gallery of “Numbers in Words“, and meanwhile various others of my existing Number Galleries have been added to or developed, including “Numbers on Boats“, “Numbers with a Seaside Theme“, “Numbers 301 – 400“, “Numbers 401 – 500“ and “Numbers 500 plus“. Further Galleries will follow shortly.
Pastel Shades
Tertiary Colours
Monochrome
Words
Another new sub-set of my Numbers Collection – I have recently added yet another collection of number photographs to my website – this time the link for the collection is Colour. I am still on the lookout for more interesting examples but was pleased to have found enough examples, in my overall collection, to make this Gallery – “Numbers in Colour“ – and am currently working on an associated “Numbers in Monochrome“ Gallery.
Two more Wave Galleries – I have added another two galleries to my “waves” collection, having recently visited Hill Head in Fareham and Stokes Bay in Gosport (each for the umpteenth time), with my camera. I was reasonably pleased with some of the results and have created a second and third photo gallery. There is something endlessly fascinating about how and where the sea meets the land, and about watching even small insignificant waves relentlessly landing on the seashore, whether lapping or crashing – each one unique, but part of and endless pattern of rhythmic movement. Personally I prefer to have my feet firmly planted on terra firma, but could watch the sea for hours as it interacts with the shoreline. The sound of this never ending interaction of sea and land is also fascinating so I have included a soundtrack to go with the two slideshows. Click here to see my “Waves II” Gallery and here for the “Waves III” Gallery
An expanding collection: Still celebrating World Photography day (19th August) I visited Portsmouth Harbour yesterday afternoon and made significant additions to my on-going collection of Fishing Boat Registration Numbers – interesting to see the number and range of ports represented there (from North Shields to Newhaven) – the recent heatwave continued unabated during the day but it was good to see the large number of visitors to Old Portsmouth which seems to have undergone something of a revival in recent years – an on-going gentrification process. See the full collection here, including ‘spares’
Numbers on gates: Still celebrating World Photography Day (19th to 25th August) with another ‘new’ collection of photographed numbers on my website – these numbers are linked by being on gates. There are some conscious repeats and some notable omissions, in this collection, which is arranged randomly this time, rather than in sequence. There are many that are ingenious, some surprising and even a few stunning examples. The collection has so far taken me some eight years to build but this is the first time I have put them together in this garden gate themed collection. All very well and good if you have a garden gate to put your number on, but not all of us do, so please enjoy the sheer range and variety from those who have, in this gallery.
World Photography Day* – To celebrate World Photo Day 2016 (19th August) I have uploaded more images to my personal website, adding to my photo collections of Boat Registration Numbers, House Numbers with a Seaside theme, Worn or Stitched Numbers, Lighthouses and “Signs of Colour“.
*But let’s not forget the very significant contributions of the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot and the other Frenchman Nicephore Niepce
French Carousels and Gallopers –
Brief Encounters II: This set of brief encounters comes from a visit to Venice in 2014, travelling by train from London to Venice via Paris and Munich. On this occasion I met with a little reluctance from some people, and some simply refused, albeit politely. Although I had practised my request in French, German and Italian before the trip I sometimes had to resort to English when my memory and courage failed me. There were also times when it was difficult to make eye contact with my subject. ‘Merci’, ‘danke’ and ‘grazie’ to all those who were willing to participate in my little project. See the Gallery here
