I’ve just finished an Open Mic poster for the Blue Cat Cafe in Stockport. They got in touch with me out of the blue (sorry!) after finding the posters I produced for The Nook Open Mic online.
The cafe looks like a bohemian sort of place, with a focus on live music, and even has its own record label. It looks well worth a visit sometime, if I’m ever in the area!
This post basically consists of a bunch of film I’ve shot over the last few months, and not got around to doing much with! There are some local views and some things I find interesting, mixed in with some lesser-known aspects of Holmfirth and some cataloguing of summer frivolities (if you can call it a summer so far!) I did have to conduct a little bit of trespass to capture a couple of these, but feel it’s all worthwhile in the name of Art… I hope you agree!
As the weather hasn’t really let up recently, I decided to take a film camera up to Yateholme to capture the scenery. Usually all my landscape work is in colour, but when the whole landscape is painted various shades of grey, black and white film seems ideal to capture the textures and feel without making everything look grim. The following shots were taken at Brownhill, Riding Wood and Digley reservoirs, using an old russian Lubitell 166b TLR (you can see it on the Vintage Cameras page). This one is easily the best of the bunch:
Some of the following prints were taken on the Lubitel 166b, some on the Yashica Mat 124, and some on an old 1930s Zeiss Ikon 515/2 bellows camera which I picked up recently for nothing on ebay and which is absolutely superb. I used it for the first time on my Dr Sketchys Burlesque shoot a few months ago, and love how it handles and the sharpness of the results.
Okay, here’s where I may land myself in trouble. I was looking for a suitable subject to test out the Kodak No 1 Autographic Jr, after doing some remedial renovation work on the bellows. And to me there was only one ideal subject sitting on my doorstep for testing a 90-year-old camera. Bamforth’s old illustration studios and postcard factory has stood crumbling for as long as I can remember, which to me seems a monumental shame – both for the beauty of the building and its crucial role in the heritage of Holmfirth. It’s boarded up and fenced off and has warning signs all over the place telling you not to go in. With a little cunning and bit of clambering though, access was easy enough.
The floors in there look like a death trap – most of the roof has long-since departed and as a result the floorboards have rotted away. I was treading carefully, trying to put my weight over the beams. It appeared the local low-life had got in there before me though and left their graffiti tags in places. The only other occupants were a good quantity of pigeons who seemed to be doing their best to fill the place with excrement. I was a little disappointed not to find any old artefacts in there, but it is just a solitary, crumbling shell. Despite that I took a roll of shots before it started to pour with rain and the water came sheeting in through the hole where the roof should be. Most of the shots are a little underexposed, but I hope you still find them as interesting as I do.
After being decimated by floods twice in a hundred years, it was decided Holmfirth needed some substantial flood defences. The resultant storm drain passes right under the centre of the village, and the other day I donned my wellies and went exploring. Again, it seems the chavs had got there first. Why they want to go and spay their graffiti in such grot-holes is beyond me – but then i suppose I bothered to go down there for some reason. These shots were taken on the Yashica Mat 124 and the Old Kodak No 1 – which by now is beginning to show signs of the bellows failing again. It looks like my repair work was unsuccessful.
Finally, what would Holmfirth be without its merry inhabitants? Here is an array of shots captured over the last few months on the Lubitel 166b, the Yashica Mat 124 and the Zeiss Ikon 515/2 – The square shots are from the Yashica and Lubitel, the rectangular ones from the Zeiss Ikon. I love the sharpness and clarity of them, particularly in bright sunlight. I have a feeling that camera is going to see many, many more films before it’s done!
These pictures are a couple of months old now – I seem to have been too busy with serious work to get them uploaded. They hail from a weekend trip to the east coast, and an early morning wander around York with a camera. All are taken using the Yashica Mat 124 and The Kodak No 1 Autographic Jr (both of which feature on my Vintage Cameras page).
My favourite from whitby is the shot below of the lighthouse. It was a very windy day in Whitby (is it ever not!), and having made the effort to drag a weighty old TLR around all day, I managed to find a gap between the rain and spray while walking back from the edge of the harbour wall and caught this shot of the old lighthouse. I love the way the stonework is eroded by years of lashing wind and salt spray, standing stalwart and strong as a reminder to the crucial role it served guiding generations of mariners back home from the North Sea. I ignored all the rules in the book about composition and shoved the lighthouse right in the middle. I think it works! The rest of the shots are below…
I have two favourite York shots from this selection. The first is the following image of the Shambles. I always loved York, and particularly the Shambles, from when my Grandparents used to take me there when I was small. The other day I drove Adele into York to start her shift early in the morning and had some time to kill. I wondered around the streets with a camera and happened to land on the Shambles at the only time I’ve ever encountered the street with no-one else on it. What is usually a hustling-bustling throng of people peering into windows is laid here as a deserted, winding, medieval street.
My second favourite is the following shot of the Minster, for which I’ve coined the tire From One Old Monument To Another. I was making my way slowly towards the railway station to get the train home. I took a detour along the walls and caught this low-angle view of the Minster in early summer haze, standing watchful over the city as it has done for generations. The shot makes me wonder how many years back folks have stood on the wall at this spot and seen this view of the Minster, while all around it changed. A genuine view from one old monument to another.
Amazingly the other day it didn’t rain. A statistic which makes the day exceptional for the “summer” we are currently experiencing. I happened to wake up early and had a wander round the ‘firth with the dog, a cup of coffee and and an old 1930s Rolleicord TLR I picked up on ebay recently which needed testing out.
It was nice to be able to get a few shots of the empty streets without endless queues of traffic and heaving throngs of tourists getting in the way.
The resulting shots are below. These were taken on TMax 400 and developed in FD10 for 15 minutes at 1:14, for those who are interested. Some early morning sun would have added a nice bit of contrast, but at least it wasn’t pissing it down and I guess I can’t ask for more than that at the moment.
The camera performed really nicely, with the exception of one little hiccup with the film advance resulting in a double exposure. The mechanism shouldn’t allow this to happen, but it is over 70 years old so I can forgive that… Plus the fact the double image has actually come out rather nicely (see below). On the whole, It’s nice to use and the results seem to be pretty good – it’s certainly a camera I will be using more often!
This was a great job because I bloody love cheese. Milk Street have a regular stall on Holmfirth Market and I was referred by another stallholder for whom I have done some design work.
I kind of knew what I was going for from the off on this job. The stall already has a “Milk Street” street sign hanging above it, so it went without saying that the sign element got incorporated into the design. Over and above that I thought a nice round design would lend itself well to little stickers for sealing up the greaseproof-paper wrapping around the cheese.
The I hand drew the milk churn and pile’o'cheese illustration to give a bit of a rustic feel to the finished design.
Holmfirth Artweek 2012 has just passed, and as well as looking after my own fringe exhibition, I’ve had the pleasure of helping out Kate Thornton with hers. Entitled Birds Don’t Need Maps, The exhibition featured many of Kate’s stylish collage pieces which often incorporate cut-ous of old maps and postcards. The bold yet simple contemporary designs making use of reclaimed antique materials fitted perfectly with the theme and sentiment behind the exhibition venue: James Howard’s Lost & Found shop.
James asked me to come along and photograph the work for an article – and much as I enjoy everything in Lost & Found, I had to remember the focus of the job was Kate’s Work – with this in ming I had to compose and expose accordingly, allowing James’s carefully curated pieces to slip slightly into the background – complimenting yet not overpowering Kate’s subtle work.
Here are the snaps. If you like them I employe you to visit Lost & Found for a look around. You will find something you want. Then contact Kate and buy some of her stuff!
I was recently invited back over to the Emerald Isle to work on various things including an updated theme for the Planet X Ireland site. This time it was much easier to create a tidy design from the outset – the site has now been up and running a good few months and all the things we tweaked and “levered in” subsequent to the initial build can now be more adequately placed.
The new theme is inspired by the Tour de France, and is much lighter, cleaner and more refreshing than before whilst holing all the site’s functionality in an easy to navigate layout.
Fairandfunky is a local enterprise that delivers creative workshops to schools and community groups on recycling, the environment and Fairtrade issues, and also sells a range of fair and funky products which all have a positive impact on people and planet.
I was asked to produce a poster to promote their forthcoming “family fun day”, and was only too happy to oblige…
I was contacted recently by a gentleman called Bill, a local musician, and member of a busy reggae band. The band – Jah-Maica, were looking for gig posters to promote themselves. I tried to create a unique style that conveyed the old reggae and ska feel, without resorting to the typical red, gold, green and black. Yes, I have incorporated all those colours but I feel the overall theme is lighter and more laid back than the oft-seen mainly heavy black artwork. Here’s the poster. They like it and I hope you do too.
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