My Walk this Week 244 – Old Quarry

Posted on 05/02/202104/02/2021 by Alastair

My walk this week took me to an old quarry which looks quite different now to what it did when I first saw it about 36 years ago. What was once mostly water has filled out with a thick array of different trees and shrubs.

The way up there was muddy and the river was flowing fast with all the recent rain. The quarry water, however, was still and quiet and I enjoyed the peaceful reflections of the plants that now almost completely hide the rock face of the quarry walls.

I was reminded by the blackened stones of a camp fire of my youth and the enjoyable times I had with friends in just such wild places as this in Northern Ireland. However, we never left the mess of cans and plastic bottles that are to be found in this place. I have managed to avoid them in my photographs but I am sorry to say that the thoughtlessness of those enjoying themselves round the camp fire here today, was very clearly in evidence.

Somehow, we need to change the misconception by some that there is no connection between us and our environment (natural or man-made). Our interconnections with it are everywhere all the time – we affect it and it affects us. There now, I have said my piece as concisely as I can. I do not want to be political on this blog in any way but this is partly what StillWalks® is about – perception, appreciation and understanding of the world around us.

A Focus on Marsh Grass

Posted on 28/02/201827/02/2018 by Alastair

One of the things I like most about my walk this week on my local salt marsh is the marsh grass. It’s not the only thing I focus on when there, but using the camera to look at different aspects of the grass by adjusting the focal length allows me to investigate some of its different textures and patterns.

The two images below with the fence half hidden amongst the grasses are ones that each have a different depth of field and which I like for different reasons. The one with the fence and background grasses blurred gives me a better sense of being there while the other seems to me to be more diagrammatic, though I like the complex texture it presents. You may see them differently, but neither of them are realistic insofar as the camera lens cannot see in the way our eyes do but only recreate a sense of a place which we, ultimately, respond to according to our individual perception. Perhaps, if you are unfamiliar with this kind of landscape feature, the images may mean nothing to you. Our connection and response to the things around us, images included, is strongly influenced by our own experiences.

Marsh grass details

Marsh Grasses

Marsh grass

Marsh fence focus 1

Marsh fence focus 2

tributary

Seed heads

Marsh grass seed head

But Is It Art?

Posted on 09/02/201803/02/2018 by Alastair

On my walk this week I found myself in one of the upper floor rooms of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and enjoyed looking at works by well known artists of the past such as Ceri Richards, Paul Nash, Henry Moore and others. In this room I was also struck by the effect of the translucent screen hanging in front of the floor to ceiling window. It changed my perception of the building opposite and for a few moments I thought I was looking at another work of art – so I took some photos!

Directly below, on the ground floor, is the room used for talks, presentations, etc., In here I spotted a stack of seats in the corner and I was again persuaded to take some photos. The clean, bright patterns of stainless steel really appealed to me ….. but is it art?Continue reading→

Art and History at The Glynn Vivian Gallery and Museum

Posted on 07/02/201802/02/2018 by Alastair

On my walk this week around the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum in Swansea, I looked in a number of the rooms. In the main gallery I observed, listened to and contemplated the various abstract and video art works to be experienced in the current exhibition – “These Waters Have Stories To Tell”.

This exhibition is part of the Ephemeral Coast series of touring exhibitions and includes six different artists. The first of the works I have shown below is one of the most deceptive – this (apparent) swimming float is in fact made of concrete and knowing this, my perception of it becomes confused. I am being deliberately deceived, and this brings to mind so many parallels in todays society that I have to start thinking more deeply about it in an effort to figure out my understanding of the themes of the exhibition and the connections the works have to us and the relationship we have with the/our environment.

On the top floor I enjoyed some of the older works in the museum – not just the works themselves but also the displays and the patterns of light and reflection created.

Alexander Duncan

Art at the Glynn Vivian

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum

Glynn Vivian ceramics collection

Glynn Vivian reflections

Walking through the mist

Posted on 08/03/201702/03/2017 by Alastair

Rising higher on this, my second consecutive walk up the Cwm Dulais valley, I came into a heavy mist. The mist was not so heavy that I couldn’t see the friendly horse in the field at the top to whom I like to chat, but his own grey colour is not far off that of the mist – well camouflaged for weather like this!

Continue reading→

Seeing Snippets with a Photographic Blinker

Posted on 23/11/201619/11/2016 by Alastair

I like to think that I would spot different details or snippets of my surroundings regardless of the photographic blinker provided by a camera. But I also think that using a camera over the years has helped me to put a mental frame around aspects of my local environment that has allowed me more easily to focus on certain details.

On my walk this week along Aberavon seafront I took many photos, both detail shots and wide angle. Thinking of using them and my field recordings for a StillWalks video of this time and place, it was important for me to view the bigger picture as well as the details. The “bigger picture” shots below reveal that the sea fret that had lifted a little for a while, had descended again to mask the details in the distance.

Continue reading→

Seeing it as it is – details of the bigger picture

Posted on 09/07/201605/07/2016 by Alastair

Nearing the end of my short street walk this week I was considering how useful a camera can be in helping to pick out aspects of an environment. Without peripheral vision plus the ability to select a point of focus it is possible to present reality as abstract. I have not taken todays photos that far and the subjects of all these images are identifiable, but seeing it as it is does not necessarily mean there is an understandable context.

If you have seen my previous posts this week you will know that the context is a city centre street along which I have been walking, looking and listening to my surroundings. But taking the images of today’s post on their own, there is a great deal of contextual information they do not give. This means the photos almost force you to consider their more abstract elements and forget about the street or town they may be in – peeling paint, the pattern of broken glass, marks on a road surface and lines in a wall.

The penultimate photo below is in a specify location in a specific town / city. It can only be one particular place but at the same time it could be anywhere. I like the vertical columns in the background set behind the horizontal pattern of parked cars but wanted to bring some more attention to them give the image a little more individuality. So with a monochrome conversion, a little digital manipulation and a tighter crop . . .

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

derelict building

glass and lace pattern

street markings

groove

car park

monochrome manipulated

Intention and Interpretation

Posted on 24/01/201524/01/2015 by Alastair

I didn’t have to pick out these photos from the shoot I did on that dreary day in Mumbles – for that matter, I didn’t have to take the photos in the first place. The images were processed and uploaded a week ago and now that I come to write this post, I wonder what my reasoning may have been. What was my intention and what might be my, or your interpretation of them?

I find I am reading things into them now that may have been sub-conscious at the time of production or even post production – but that time to reflect is very valuable. All of the work I have produced as an artist over the years was made over greater or lesser amounts of time, naturally, but just as the meaning of a piece of art can be different for each individual, so it can also change for the artist.

Some of my other art work can be seen here.

Tag Archives: perception