Summer is finally upon us and walks in the wilds are scented with elder flowers and woodbine. I’ve been immersed in a product shoot these past ten days and have finally arrived on the other side.
The technical development that comes out of product shooting is always useful. I found myself lighting subjects for my Elliptical Orbit Project (EOP) with eyes that were better informed.
Moonrise over the Creek, School Reach, Bosham
The EOP weaves strands of thinking that connects fine art subjects through time and space. The starting point was a documentary on the telly about technological innovations in pre-history where the moon’s orbit was described as elliptical. This caught my attention. I’ve known it was elliptical but the technical term has a beauty about it that dropped hard into my imagination. I heard it again the same day. Weird. So it got me thinking about the things I’ve been photographing and how they might have orbits, and what these orbits might be, and how they connect to my work and me.
Bosham Creek slow strand line on a rising tide
The birds nest fallen out of a tree post storm in early June. The large, round flint found by Nici on a dog walk with me on the harbour. The mushroom in June in Longwood with Jack.
Longwood nibbled mushroom
Crab on the strand, Thorney Channel.
Seasonality. Geological epochs. Migration. The orbiting moon influencing tides, interesting finds at low tide. Summer storms, circulating weather patterns, winds that orbit our planet. Birds nesting annually, over an orbit of time, building nests in round, safe forms that cradle eggs and ride out the weather. Baby crabs riding the seaweed strandlines, buffeted by the big waves. The seasons of reproduction. Summer Moon jellyfish in the creek.
We are all connected.
The EOP photographic trajectory includes some big vase/jellyfish nautical activity on the Good Ship Rose Beetle, which is my Bosham summer focus. July sees us in Greece (manifesting the travel plans!) where I’ll be continuing work on the EOP and a Midsumner Night’s Dream series. I’m seriously contemplating a macro lens and definitely printing Greek-coffee stained Cyanotypes while I’m there.
Workshops:
I’m running three workshops in June. One on the Harbour, two on Cyanotypes- Botanical Experiments and Harbour Flotsam & Jetsam. £195/head for the day including lunch, spread the word. (Patreons charged £150/day coz you’re special). Dates are Wednesday 16th, 23rd, 30th June.
Cyanotype processing
Botanical interest was one of the first uses of the Cyanotype process. On the workshops we will make our own light sensitive papers, and leaving them to dry we will go out to the harbour, take photos and scour for physical materials. These we will then use creatively with the light-sensitive paper. It’s 19th century photography with 21st century input. You’ll take home some gorgeous blue prints and the know-how to do this for yourselves.