Monday 31st August 2015, 7.55pm (day 1,467)
Why Stevie Wonder? No idea. Why not? More of a wonder was finding a cash machine in Hebden Bridge with cash still in it, at the fag-end of a three-day Bank Holiday weekend.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Hebden Bridge
Boiler works
Friday 28th August 2015, 10.00am (day 1,464)
Second day in a row spent almost entirely at home, partly because I’m unwell and also because we were having a new central heating boiler installed. The old one is visible on the front steps, with its red back. Why the scaffolding? I am not sure, ask the engineer. Perhaps just for the variety.
Joe in the alley
Saturday 15th August 2015, 1.15pm (day 1,451)
We’re still not moving a great distance from home. Taken down the side of the cinema in Hebden Bridge. Why do I like it? The arrow, the lines, the capturing of Joe’s shuffling gait.
Abandoned farm
Tuesday 21st July 2015, 11.25am (day 1,426)
Estate agents would describe this as ‘in a highly desirable location with a world-class view, but in need of renovation and lacking certain amenities’. In other words it isn’t on a road and doesn’t have mains anything, which is probably why it’s been abandoned for many years. This is Clough Head Farm, off the Widdop road above Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge. I’m still in training for the walk I will begin a week from today.
Road works sign, early morning
Thursday 16th July 2015, 6.25am (day 1,421)
I have been re-reading Gerry Badger’s superb book, The Genius of Photography, a fascinating history of the medium. Last time I did this I went all social realist on this blog and decided I was taking away these commentaries and letting the images speak for themselves. This lasted about a week after I received a surprising number of complaints both directly and indirectly. So don’t worry, I’m not going to do that again.
But Badger’s book does always make me ask, just why am I doing this? What is it I’m trying to create? Is it art? Am I making a statement about the world? I think the answer has to be no, I’m not an artist. But what I am is a blogger, a diarist: I’ve kept a journal for over thirty years now (yes, every day), and this blog has become an extension of it into the visual medium, and also a public medium. I hope I create pictures that are aesthetically pleasing along the way — a body of photographic work if you like, after all, I take so many that some of them are going to be half decent. But just as important is the accumulated narrative. This blog depicts the world as I see it each day, no more, no less. No photos are posed or staged, and all light is what I have to work with on the spot. And that’s what I do.
I doubt it’ll make much impact on the history of photography or be noticed by Gerry Badger should he ever write a second edition of his book, but it gives me a sense of my own place in the world, and that’s what gives it value.
Skate park, empty
Wednesday 15th July 2015, 8.30am (day 1,420)
Walked to the station this morning past the skate park, which in the pleasant sunshine looked clean, and colourful, and I liked the shapes and lines and variety of the decorations. Of course, I have also captured it empty, and devoid of life, because it’s there to be used, not least by skateboarders. Maybe paying homage to the other people’s art — a valid way of using the park if you ask me — is what I’m doing here.
Birchcliffe hillside, Hebden Bridge
Sunday 12th July 2015, 11.50am (day 1,417)
Only two of the last 19 days’ pictures have been taken in Hebden Bridge, or three if you count yesterday’s in Mytholmroyd, which is just down the road. But I have a couple of weeks here now before my trip to Tanzania, so time to find some inspiration around home. I bet your town doesn’t look quite like this.
Evening view over Hebden Bridge
Monday 22nd June 2015, 7.30pm (day 1,397)
Another day where the weather can politely be described as ‘mixed’. But at least this evening burst of sun brought dramatic light for a time. Today brings to an end what has been (for me) a relatively long period at home, but the next ten days see me mostly elsewhere.
Scaffolding scarecrow
Saturday 13th June 2015, 12.40pm (day 1,388)
Pictured atop what used to be the Hole in the Wall pub — which has been under renovation for months now (as this photo, taken in early April 2014, proves). Why the builders felt the need to do it, no idea — ask them. Not an exciting shot but then again I have no plans to have an exciting weekend, time at home, doing nothing, is required.
Cutlery for sale
Wednesday 10th June 2015, 9.10am (day 1,385)
Wednesday morning means the bric-a-brac market in Hebden Bridge. I stood by this ‘display’ (a pink storage box) long enough to get this single pic but at that point the stallholder, attracted by some logo I had on the random T-shirt I threw on that morning, started a conversation with me and I decided that if I took another one I would be expected to shell out on cutlery. We don’t need cutlery, so I moved on. I dunno, the thrills of a day working at home, huh.
Being 42 