A few shots from the Spring Fair at the South of England Centre near Ardingly.

South of England Centre. 2012.

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The Brighton Centre. Hove. 2012

The Brighton Centre. Hove. 2012

The Brighton Centre. Hove. 2012

I have been trying for a while to get into a new project, but have had too many (and not enough good) ideas flying around to really do anything focussed. This is hopefully the start of some ideas that I have been bouncing around for a while, and turning them,.. probably slowly, into some kind of cohesive project. Its not something that I think is going to start to come together without quite a few images, but the ideas are slowly forming, so hopefully it is getting somewhere. The subject is essentially what I’m calling (possibly incorrectly) middle england. Essentially the dull kind of english middle class that revolves around town halls and bleak Sunday afternoons. More than this is hard to describe at the moment, but maybe if I actually shoot some stuff it will become clearer in time.

Here are some other shots from this shoot, still debating the editing process and some of these definitely wont make the cut:

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I can offer no attempt at context here beyond a freezing cold snowy walk and a moment which appealed to me on an aesthetic level and seemed to capture the atmosphere of that day and that place. For once the image which I saw on the focus screen actually translated how I hoped into the final image. There is something about the colour and sadness that appeals to me.

Just a few shots taken on the most freezing cold day of the year, at the seafront at Salt Dean. I love this bit of coast because it is so bleak and peaceful and the light is usually pretty beautiful.

This month’s Brighton MiniClicks speaker Chris Floyd had to get a mention here for a really interesting talk and some great work. You can see loads more of his work on his website and blog (above). As a speaker he was entertaining and easy to listen to and it was really interesting to hear his perspective on his own work and just generally on being a working photographer. I’m not sure whether its reassuring or worrying that a guy who is clearing doing so well seems to share the same general self doubt/loathing that we all do, but I’m going to go for the former. He also talked about his reasons for getting in to photography (primarily to get over his shyness and have an excuse to meet interesting people and see interesting places) and the importance to him of this element of the process, which I would definitely identify with.

Also announced at the talk were a couple of interesting upcoming events, including a collaboration between miniclicks and the photobook show, which is due to be happening in London at some point. Not sure of the details as yet but there is some more info here.

All images ©Chris Floyd

Below is the text for the original project to give a sense of context.

“In this project I wanted to explore the constructed environment of the country’s zoos, focusing particularly on the enclosures and the architecture of these strange theatres, in which the players are exotic animals and displaced trees. There is a sense of melancholy in these places, which is juxtaposed against a fictional sense of utopia, and the romanticed childhood vision many of us remember. 

I find something odd and strangely appealing about these constructed habitats of plastic rocks and painted backgrounds. There is a mixture of somber grimness with intrigue. We must allow a suspension of disbelief to allow our enjoyment of such places, but the cracks in the facade are clear and our experience is often tainted with a sense of discomfort and disappointment. 

It is this sense of disappointment that forms the central theme of this body of work. For many of us a trip to the zoo is an experience of empty cages, fleeting glimpses and a search for answers in the captions on the glass, which present the often absent animals as if articles in a cabinet of curiosities. 

This series chronicles the absent and the hidden, mostly in the form of empty or abandoned enclosures. It allows the focus to move from the animals to their stages, asking us to examine what is usually a mere background to the central actors.”

In this image my main interest was just in the contrast between the faux “natural environment” and the urban background.

I am wondering how this work can evolve and whether it’s worth trying to bring together projects which look at similar themes in some way. Facade, illusion, melancholy and disappointment certainly seem to be words I am destined to repeat over and over.

Brighton currently has a little xmas tree graveyard on the Level, which I was quite keen to photograph, so I went down there early the other morning. Overall it was not a success, due in part to lack of useful viewpoint, lack of light, my camera deciding to malfunction, and no doubt a lack of creative thinking on my part. But I thought I would stick a couple of images on here anyway.