Today Is Tomorrow's History
The Royal Tradition of Swan Upping takes place every July on the River Thames, so I got my bike out again, and headed down to Shepperton Lock to meet up with the Swan Uppers, on the first day of Swan Upping of 2023.
Every year in Chertsey the Armistice Day is commemorated on November 11th outside St Peter’s Church. The roads are always closed just prior to the ceremony and there is always a good turn out from the locals.
I have photographed it each year for a few years now and it is always touching, and at the same time grounding. Noticeably each year there are less and less old faces present, which really does bring it home.
This year was the 40th anniversary of the Falklands war and the following poem The Falklands by Terry Charles was read to remember the people who lost their lives during that conflict.
The Falklands
“In the south Atlantic the sea runs red
With the blood of British sons now dead
Never again will they have tears of pain
Now they lay silent in the cold and rain
Homes men left will never be the same
To the Falkland Islands the task force came
To fight for freedom on invaded lands
And break the chains that bind free hands
War injure and kill our friends and kin
When the fighting is over no nation wins”
Terry Charles
This is a selection of photos from this years ceremony – click the image to open the gallery.
It may have turned a bit chilly here in the UK lately but it wasn’t that long ago that we were enduring a heatwave and that was when I took this photo of someone “fending off” the sun with their brolly.
There used to be a huge Abbey in Chertsey (until Henry VIII dissolved it in 1537 and then dismantled it to make his own palace in nearby Weybridge – so a bit before my time), and although there is very little left, that doesn’t stop monks from The Saint Edward Brotherhood coming to Chertsey every year for the Great Blessing Of Waters.
I was lucky enough to be there this year so managed to take some reportage photos of the event, and then also arranged to visit their fantastic looking monastery in Brookwood, Surrey to take some interior photographs of the building itself.
Whilst looking through my archive for photos themed along the lines of “Dry January” I came across this street photo I took back in 2014. I would often see this chap walking around Chertsey carrying a can of Special Brew in this rather interesting grip; I wasn’t sure if he was trying to hide it from view or whether it was just one of his quirks.
I’ll be honest I’ve never really understood why someone would want to dress up and pretend to be someone else so when a (last minute) opportunity to photograph the inaugural Icons Of Rock festival in Surrey presented itself I jumped at the chance to find out. The festival was a line up of Tribute Acts to famous musicians; Limehouse Lizzy (Thin Lizzy), Michael (Jackson) starring Ben, Absolute Bowie, The Illegal Eagles, Live/Wire (AC/DC) and Killer Queen.
I’m a music lover and an avid people watcher, and with the festival season well and truly upon us (does it actually ever end?) I was reminded that I took some time out last year at the BST Festival in Hyde Park, where we’d gone to watch primarily The Cure, and grabbed some candid shots of the festival goers.
How do you celebrate St George’s Day? The Ewell St Mary’s Morris Men don their outfits and head up to the City Of London to entertain all and sundry, and this year I followed them around for the day whilst they danced, sang, shook their bells and quaffed ale! What could be more English than grown men wearing daft hats and having a thoroughly good time in the midst of the UK’s major finance and business centre? There were crowds, selfies in abundance, as well as confused and bemused tourists, and the odd, far too self important, grumpy businessman.
When I was commissioned to photograph a pheasant shoot in North Wales, I had mixed feelings about it; I grew up in the countryside so knew about these things as well as some of the people involved, but I am also aware of people’s sensitivities towards this subject.
I was allowed to shoot some behind the scenes imagery with the head gamekeeper, which was an eye-opening experience and I was struck by how integral to the local economy this shoot was. The village pub’s survival was based on it and many local people worked on the shoot in various capacities outside of the shoot days.
There was an odd contradiction in the way the gamekeepers would spend months looking after the pheasants and their habitat, feeding them and providing clean water regularly, as well as protecting them from predators such as foxes and rats. The pheasants are given free rein in a large wood which is fenced off using wire netting, and again the ‘keepers patrol the fence daily to ensure that there are no breaches that would mean a fox may have got in to the wood. They would lay traps to catch rats and grey squirrels which eat the food that they put out for the birds, and to keep crows away who can eat the young birds (as well as attack lambs). The effects of the ‘keepers efforts generally help the survival of other non-game bird species, as well as helping lamb farmers protect their flock.
Although it’s not my job to judge things I certainly came away with an alternative perspective, but I still wouldn’t want to be a pheasant….
I love the seaside – almost regardless of the weather, which has been just as well this summer! There’s something in the air, apart from salt and the smell of seaweed. People seem to change when they are at the seaside; they become more relaxed and develop a sense of play.
I visited several beaches on the South Coast to try and capture that sense of play. It was a tough job visiting beaches on sunny days but I had to take it on. Taking some inspiration from JS Lowry I created images where the people were small and indistinguishable but their sense of involvement with the sea was clear.
Now if I could just sell my prints for the same price as Lowry…
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