All posts tagged: PDBarton

Dolls head in derelict house

Exploring the Fascination of Derelict Houses

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This image is of a dolls head sitting on the floor of a derelict house. Derelict houses have always fascinated me. Who lived there? What did they do? Why did they go? It’s about the ghosts of those who have gone before. During my life there have been a couple of opportunities for me to gain access to old properties. Firstly when I worked in the building industry in Birmingham. It was in the early 1960’s. At that time Birmingham was clearing its inner city slums (I was born in one such in Nechells near to the Gas works). Thousands of Victorian houses were being cleared and being replaced, arguably with modern versions. That aside, I had access to houses that had been swept away, though their cellars were still available to me.On a site in Curzon St., we were building a Centre for Public lighting* over what was once rows of early 19thC houses**. Much of was once the superstructure had just been dumped in the cellars we were digging through. In thre cellars …

Installing a New Water Supply

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A few weeks ago we were notified by Anglian Water we had a water leak and that we had a month or so to fix it, or else. We investigated inside the house. Nothing was found. No leaks at all. Everything was dry.We called the number on the e-mail and a really helpful chap arrived from Anglian Water to see if he could find the leak externally saying “It may be the connection between your house and our main”. Reassuringly adding “in most cases it is”. He called in an “Emergency team” to dig up the pavement around the stop tap point where we are connected to the main. They came, they dug and found the connection to the main was not the problem. At the same time they upgraded the connection point to their main. It’s worth mentioning here:1. Anything in the pavement is their issue not the householders.   2. Anything from the back of pavement into the house is the responsibility of the householders to fix.  Hmmm that sounds expensive we thought. …

Humber and Holderness Coast: Unpublished Image from the Meridian Project.

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This image was made as part of the Meridian Project but was not originally published.It shows the East Coast just above the Humber on the Southern end of the Holderness Coast. Co-ordinates for the image:0° 0’22.09″W, 0015 / 53°45’47.05”N Close to the horizon, to the right of the frame, is the Lincs Offshore Wind Farm which is situated 8Km off the Skegness coast. The Meridian Project, entitled “A Line Runs Through It” can be seen here… “A LINE RUNS THROUGH IT” The project documents a photographic journey down the 0deg Meridian Line as it passes through Lincolnshire, after originating at the North Pole the first land it reaches is in Holderness.Captured over many days spread over 6 months, the photographer travelled the length of the 0deg Meridian as it passes through Lincolnshire, a distance of just over 70 miles. Images of the people and places were made along the line from landfall in the Holderness area just above the Humber Estuary, crossing the Humber into the North East Coastal plain, then cutting through Louth, an …

A suggested revision

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Sue and I were in Roker in the North East of England recently. Whilst at dinner in the Roker Hotel we sat next to Ian Macdonald, a photographer from that area. We got talking and Ian looked at a couple of small images on my phone. He made suggestions about the editing of the one you see here. I made those alterations. The image looks all the better for it. Thanks Ian.

Artificial Intelligence. Oh No! Not that again. Yes but….

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Before you switch off with boredom, I don’t want to talk about the “Terminator’ effect. No, mine is a more mundane topic and one I have not heard discussed thus far in relation to AI. As I understand AI, insofar as it relates to the production of images, is the production of a specific machine created image and is made possible by “Talking”, and I use the word loosely here,  to a machine  instructing it as to the type of picture you want produced, what you want included and telling it what you want to see. Sorry if I have been over simplistic here. The machine then constructs the image and delivers it to you.  I understand it uses data, i.e. images, from the vast resources of the web to make its construct. The question comes to mind; Do the AI packages pay for the use of these images to fabricate the final images? I’m guessing not. So the images are simply misappropriated, not in monetary terms, but for the benefit implicit in using those …

Time flies.

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I took this picture of a (then) young man at a travelling fair in Hay Mills, Birmingham (Just off the A45 Coventry Rd) back in the Late 70’s / Early 80’s. I have a few others from the day but I was recently drawn to this image by the far away look in the young man’s eyes. If anybody can put me in touch with the subject – just to say hello – I would be grateful.He would be in his 50’s now I suppose. As I say Time Flies.

The smell of a steam engine.

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We stayed in a hotel in Coventry last weekend. We were at the elegantly re-fitted former home of the Coventry Evening Telegraph, a purpose built structure, now a sensitively styled 1960’s hotel. All around the hotel there are reminders of its past, not least of which are old front pages placed all around, even in the bathroom in our room. This one, being placed above the toilet was impossible for me to miss. The piece recounts an accident in Marston Green, once a small village in my childhood – it even had a blacksmiths forge. The main railway line between Birmingham to Coventry and further, was sandwiched alongside the village and a municipal golf course on the other side of the tracks. As you can read several carriages of an express train were derailed in the station. This occurred, according to the Coventry Evening Telegraph, in 1963. I was 16 by then. Prior to this, in my pre-teens, I would stand on the skeletal metal bridge over the rail line (pictured below) waiting for the …

Selling my prints. Hmmm.

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Recently, I asked on Twitter who amongst my ‘followers’ sold their pictures on line and if they did would they mind sharing their experiences; the reason being I wish to sell some of my own pictures on line and I thought I could benefit from the experience of those who had gone before, as it were. I had some interesting comments and help.

Fungi in the woods

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The brown leaves of Autumn show themselves on the trees. The season is changing and with that change comes fungi. Walking in the woods with Bess, our Chocolate Labrador, is something I do all year. I like the peace and quiet. I like to watch the seasons change. Sometimes, I just like to sit on a tree stump and listen. Coming from a city, I appreciate the lack of noise. The best time of year, in my opinion, is early Autumn. The sun still holds some warmth and its light remains strong, creating dappled patterns on the freshly carpeted floor of the woods.