As a weather-obsessed nation I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to mention it again (along with most of our newspapers who have all run stories this week about the rain-lashed bank holiday).

In a word, it’s been ghastly. I’ve hardly been able to take a photograph since last week and our journey through Devon and Dorset has been a bit of washout. Even Weymouth’s Sea Festival which we tried to attend on Monday was, somewhat ironically, rained off!

After five days of torrential rain, we woke up this morning to yet more depressing weather. This was the view from the motorhome window at our campsite near Kimmerdige Bay, Dorset.

We’re heading up to the Bath & West Agricultural Show tomorrow and the forecast is not much better.

 

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I need to thank three institutions for their kind financial support, which is helping to make the production of We English possible.

Firstly, I recently received a bursary from the National Media Museum in Bradford. Greg Hobson, Curator of Photographs at the Museum describes the bursary as “part of the Museum’s ongoing commitment to photography and to increase awareness of contemporary photography by promoting the work of emerging photographers. The bursaries will help talented photographers produce ongoing projects or a new body of work, allowing them to develop and enhance their practice and profile.” The bursary was judged by a group of key individuals involved in contemporary art: Michael G Wilson (Chairman of the Trustees of the National Media Museum), Zelda Cheatle (WMG Photography Advisor and Curator), Simon Crocker (Chairman of The John Kobal Foundation), Philippe Garner (International Head of Photography, Christie’s Auction House) and Terence Pepper (Curator of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery).

Secondly, Arts Council England for awarding me with an ‘Individual Grant for the Arts’.

And finally to the John Kobal Foundation and their Chairman, Simon Crocker, who have also committed some funds to the project.

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Jemima relaxing at basecamp in Cirencester. Long may this weather continue!

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On a trip back from Amsterdam recently I came across a newspaper cutting with an article entitled ‘Man goes golfing after jet crash destroys home’ (see cutting in my scrap book below). A story that goes some way to highlight the sometimes bizarre devotion the English have for sporting pastimes. Eddie Harman, 72, was in Spain when he was told that a plane had crashed into his home in Farnborough, killing five people. His wife came home from a separate holiday to cope with the aftermath, however, Mr Harman played a round of golf before returning to England. He is quoted as saying “I think a round of golf helped take my mind off things.”

While I was in Amsterdam I visited the Rijks Museum. Although the building is currently undergoing major renovation, there is still an opportunity to see a selection of the museum’s masterpieces. A small but wonderful display of Dutch paintings. Given my current interest in leisure, I was particularly taken by Hendrick Avercamp’s ‘Winter landscape with iceskaters’. Avercamp (1585-1634) was one of the first landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, and the most famous exponent of the winter landscape. He was deaf and dumb and known as de Stomme van Kampen (the mute of Kampen).

Winter Landscape with Iceskaters, c. 1608

In this painting, one of the earliest large winter landscapes in the Rijksmuseum, crowds of people are depicted on the ice in a scene that stretches far into the distance. There is considerable variety among the figures, both in clothing and in what they are doing. Some of those portrayed are having fun, while others appear to be working. Avercamp has included several daring details, such as the couple making love, the bare buttocks and the man urinating.

Another wonderful example of Avercamp’s winter landscapes is: ‘A winter scene with skaters near a castle’ (1585), reproduced here-

I’m going to look at paintings in more detail in a future post. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions of paintings that depict scenes of leisure and pastimes, particularly in the English landscape, please post them below.

A few for starters –

William Powell Frith ‘Derby Day’ (1856-8)

Philip Wilson Steer ‘A Procession of Yachts’ (1892-3)

James Tissot ‘Holyday’ (c. 1876)

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While I have been making photographs for the project since last September, the bulk of production will be undertaken this Spring/Summer during a continuous journey from 1^st May until mid September. For this leg of the journey I will be joined by my wife Sarah, and our two-year-old daughter Jemima. We will be travelling in our newly acquired home – a 1993 Talbot Express Swift Capri 520 GXL – which we’ve just bought from the very patient and knowledgeable crew at JC Leisure Motorhomes in Winchelsea, East Sussex.

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For the past four years I’ve worked almost exclusively with a Mamiya 7 camera, and is what I used for Motherland.  I’d originally planned to use a 5×4 field camera for the trip but because of logistical reasons I decided on the Mamiya. (Traveling for a year across Russia meant that I needed a light, versatile camera that could cope with very cold temperatures). 

We English will all be shot on a 5×4 camera. I’m going to be using the beautiful Ebony 45S (see photograph below), a lovingly crafted camera made from ebony wood and titanium. It is lightweight, compact and easy to use. However, what I’m most enamoured by is its simplicity and purity. It is the antithesis of our modern digital age and is a far more contemplative process to image making, too rarely seen in our twenty-four-hour news media world. Importantly for me, I also take better photographs with it!

There is something much more personal about my relationship with the camera, partly due to the amount of time and effort it takes to compose an image, where I find myself being more considered in framing every scene. This relationship also extends to my subjects who I find relate to me as a photographer in a more intimate way and, on the whole, tend to take the image making process more seriously than if I was snapping away with a smaller, hand held camera.

In a bizarre way, I also tend to get more spontaneous photographs, especially in situations where there a lots of people in the frame, mainly because by the time I’ve set-up and am ready to take the photograph, people have got bored looking at the camera and continue with what they were doing.

I’m going to be photographing exclusively with a Schneider 150mm lens using Fuji Pro160 S film.

 

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