Those of you that follow me on social media (in particular, Facebook and Instagram) may have noticed that I haven't posted anything new on there for quite some time. I haven't been an enormous fan of the former for a while, now, (I can only take so much of couples wishing each other happy anniversary!) and I very rarely post anything personal. I occasionally browse to remind me of friends' birthdays and memories that inform me of what I posted this time last year and so on. The one aspect I do enjoy is the closed ' workshop and tours' group page that I set up a few years ago for those that attend the aforementioned enabling them to share photos and memories. I, also, occasionally set seasonal challenges and if asked happily appraise those that are posted. This side of it I like very much.
If you want to avoid the dross that plagues FB then Instagram is certainly the best place to post images although it does seem rather strange that we should spend a fortune on equipment and hours processing images only for them to be viewed on a low-resolution mobile phone screen! For this reason, and others, my postings are irregular at best. Some may argue that social media is an important tool to grow your business. To a point, I agree, that having a 'presence' is quite important but rarely do I obtain subscribers through them. The vast majority comes from word of mouth, magazine articles, and organic searches.
Also, over the last year, I've been almost exclusively shooting black and white film (notice how I suppressed the urge to say analogue!) on a medium format Hasselblad. I won't go into the why's too much other than I wasn't finding digital challenging enough and I wanted to start producing more meaningful bodies of work.
I've been photographing, seriously, for 40 years and started with black and white and then transparency and so the concept of film is hardly a new one. I'm currently working on a new project exploring our relationship and influence on the North Kent Marshes which monochrome suits perfectly, and furthermore I'm also developing and scanning the film at home. The development side, alone, has taken almost a year to 'perfect' (I say that loosely for constant tweaking is a never-ending task) and I'm now making my own developer which has freed me from the supply constraints of both Ilford and Kodak. Ultimately, in the not too distant future, my intention is to once again disappear into the darkroom and begin the process of producing silver gelatine prints.
I don't like to share too many images prior to a project's completion but those below will give you an idea as to the kind of work I'm currently producing.
