There’s a phone box on the seafront, shabby, grubby and smelly, with various things stuck to the glass and metal surfaces: flyers advertising all sorts, chewing gum, stickers and the like, all fading and peeling with the passage of time.
I set up a sturdy tripod and took many shots over a few hours, noticing how the images altered with the changing light as the sun moved across the sky and the colours changed as people wearing different coloured clothes walked behind the phone box.
Seashells are an important part of coastal ecosystems: they provide materials for birds’ nests, a home or attachment surface for algae, sea grass, sponges and a host of other micro-organisms. Fish use them to hide from predators and hermit crabs use them as temporary shelters.
I have a sense of unease and dismay when I see shells, made into artefacts of one type or another, for sale in souvenir and gift shops, their beauty tarnished and degraded. These products, made for our acquisitive consumer culture, never have the beauty and integrity of the original, naturally formed sculptures.
Removal of shells from beaches damages ecosystems and endanger organisms that rely on shells for their survival.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0083615
On the contrary, nestled among other pebbles on the beach, I was delighted to find some with exquisite little drawings that someone had painted on them, evocative of cave paintings – though on a much smaller scale! I found them beautiful and wondered how long it would be until the sea washed all traces away. Perhaps the impermanence was part of their appeal.
Now obsolete phone boxes on the promenade are covered in advertising flyers; posters and stickers are taped or blue-tacked on then torn off or pasted over with newer ones; a top layer of graffiti adds to the visual cacophony as layers of paper, paint, tape and plastic are built up and then removed.
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
Urban, city life contrasts with the natural world, in the area of Brighton seafront between the piers. There is an overriding sense of impermanence here as holidaymakers, day-trippers and other visitors come and go; the tides ebb and flow and the light and the weather changes through the days and the seasons.
Macro Photography Brighton
Macro Photography Brighton – Brighton must have one of the most photographed beaches in the UK, not perhaps because of it’s beauty but because there’s just so much ‘stuff’ going on there all year round and so many photographers living in the city. I’m not aware though, of many close-up or macro images that have been taken around the seafront area.
I’ve recently embarked on a project to make macro images in the area between and including the piers, with as open a mind as possible as to where the project might lead and what I might end up shooting.
Macro images are of details, close-ups that that can reveal the unnoticed or the overlooked. Inevitably, many of the shots will look as if they could have been taken anywhere but I’d like at least some of them to reference and reveal Brighton’s multi-layered character.
I intend publishing posts for each photoshoot and see where it leads.
Hope Home, Chiang Mai – I recently spent some time in Chiang Mai, Thailand where I had the opportunity to visit Hope Home to take photos of the children there during a visit by volunteers from Art Relief International. https://hopehomecm.wordpress.com. ARI works to transform the lives of struggling social groups in Chiang Mai, Thailand by offering them the opportunity to express themselves creative
Tadpole loves paint
Tadpole loves paint
Hope Home
The optimistically named Hope Home is a foster home caring for children with a variety of physical and mental disabilities. Making art with these children, who have a limited range of motion and communication difficulties, gives them a voice. The volunteers visit the house each Wednesday with a new creative workshop for the children to participate in and from their reaction when we arrived, they look forward to these visits and enjoy them a great deal.
Yindee playing with Sophie’s hair
Yindee is a seven year old girl with severe cerebral palsy and epilepsy who was born into the Yellow Leaf tribe, a native hill tribe living near Chiang Mai. Due to their nomadic, primitive way of living, she was not receiving the medical and physical care she needed and was not growing properly.
Since living at Hope Home, she has become healthier, spends less time in hospital, and receives personalised physiotherapy for her disabilities. She also still sees her family. She loves to play with hair and a feather boa is often draped around her for her to stroke.
Kame and Tadpole playing with bubbles
Kame is a two year old girl whose mother signed her over to HopeHome as she could not afford the medicine needed to manage her genetic disorder. The aim of looking after Kame is to have her reunited with her mother and brother as soon as possible.
Kame looks on as Yindee is painting with her foot
Although, I only spent two sessions photographing these loving children, I developed an attachment to them and was surprised at how sad I felt that I would not be seeing them again.
Perhaps it was their open, trusting natures, their quirkiness and their vulnerability. It was certainly their charm.
AOH Exhibition 2015
Colleen will be showing her work at ʻIlana Richardson and Guests,ʼ which is venue 3 on the West Hove Trail as part of the AOH exhibition 2015 in the Brighton Festival. Last year the house was nominated for Best Open House.
66 Langdale Gardens, Hove, BN3 4HH
Tel: 01273 726 464
email art@ilana-richardson.com
Link to house: http://www.aoh.org.uk/may-2015-festival-houses?item=1567
Open every Saturday and Sunday in May from 11 am – 5 pm
Colleen Slater – Photography
Jessica Jordan – Ceramics
Ilana Richardson – Paintings and prints
Elizabeth Anne Norris – Jewellery
Nick Orsborne – Jewellery
Sefton Kaplan – Domestic pottery
Chris Macdonald – Found objects
Siobhan O’Leary – Jewellery
I now have a Facebook page; please click https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colleen-Slater-
Photography/151787608165039 and it would be great if you would “like” the page and like the images. This will bring my Facebook page to more people. Please send the Facebook link to your friends.
Colleen will be showing her work at ʻIlana Richardson and Guestsʼ, on the West Hove Trail as part of the OpenHouse exhibition in the Brighton Festival.
66 Langdale Gardens, Hove, BN3 4HH
Tel: 01273 726 464
email art@ilana-richardson.com
Open every Saturday and Sunday in May from 11 am – 5 pm
Colleen Slater – Photography
Ilana Richardson – Paintings and Prints
Nick Orsborne – Jewellery
