Seeing the Ordinary
Escalator Up
It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer …. in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary.
David Bailey, Photographer
The beauty of the ordinary - a thought for the new year
Finding beauty and joy in nature, in everyday things and everyday lives and realities is not escapism, I think, nor a dereliction of duty in these increasingly dire and depressing times, but a way of reminding ourselves that there is more to life than the screeching and posturing that fills our ears, or the doom-scrolling of social media that consumes our time.
It is a way of reminding ourselves of our better natures, our connectedness to all things, our responsibilities and duty of care towards one another and towards the planet we share, and a reminder, ultimately, that we are just passing through.
After the service, Roncesvalles
2025
The Year of Morbid Symptoms
‘The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.’
Gramsci, Prison Notebooks
‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.’
W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
Rocky Mountain High
Kootenay National Park
In August last year my daughter Eve and her family moved out west, to start a new life in Airdrie, Alberta, just outside Calgary. They are outdoorsy people - hikers, climbers, campers, snowboarders, canoeists, you name it - and one of the attractions for them (not the only one) was the proximity of their new home to the Rocky Mountains.
And so, come December, Rob and I flew out west, too, to spend their first Christmas in their new home with them. Over the ten days that we were there we made three long day trips (thanks, Shaun, for all the driving!) to Kananaskis, Marble Canyon, through the Kootenay National Park to Radium Hot Springs, and to Banff and Lake Louise.
I had planned, needless to say, on taking a bag full of cameras and lenses - this was my first visit to the Rockies, and Ansel Adams loomed large in my imagination - but in the event took only the Leica. There were too many Christmas gifts to pack and carry, and something had to give.
As it turned out, having only the one camera, with its one fixed (and superlative) lens, was exactly right for the occasion. Without the distraction of choosing and shuffling between lenses and cameras I could be fully present and focused on the scene before me - my breath hanging in the cold air, the snow falling, the infinite quiet.
The Leica, with its wonderfully intuitive handling and natural perspective became simply an extension of hand and eye, shrugging off the below-zero temperatures with aplomb and capturing a trove of images that were simply a delight to work on once we returned home.
There’s a moral to this story I guess, isn’t there? About cameras and gear vs making photographs, but also, perhaps, about simplifying our lives, and cutting through the clutter and noise to the essential.
In any case, do take a look at the collection of photographs I’ve posted on my website - I hope that they give you at least some of the pleasure that taking and processing them has given me!
Black-and-White Exposures
Kananaskis
Black-and-White as you know is the original, ur-language of photography; only in the latter part of the last century were colour photographs and those who photographed in colour (if you haven’t taken my cue previously, people, do yourselves a favour and take a look at Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter) considered ‘serious’ enough to be exhibited at leading galleries and museums including, most notably, MoMA - the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Even as colour moved into the mainstream, however, the particular qualities of B&W/monochrome - its affinity for abstraction, distillation, its love of form, of texture, of pure light and pure shade, its simplifying and clarifying function - ensured its enduring relevance and cemented its value, both as ‘fine art’ and gritty documentary.
The black-and-white photographs in this next set of images (click here to see the full collection) are monochrome ‘exposures,’ first of all, in the most obvious sense: that every photograph is the product of an exposure to light of film, or a glass plate, a digital sensor or some other medium.
The photographs are also, however, a record of exposures of a different sort - the exposure of rocks and lakes and mountain tops to wintry weather; the physical exposure of the photographer or visitor to the raw, untrammelled force of the elements; the aesthetic and emotional exposure to nature and the universe that we feel in such awe-inspiring places; the spiritual and metaphysical exposure that arises when we feel in our bones our small and vulnerable place in the world.
These photographs, then, explore the boundary between a purely representational and a more interpretive and emotional way of seeing, seeking that liminal space where the actual world meets the world of our imagining.
I’d love to know how you see and respond to the two Rocky Mountain portfolios - the colour, and the black-and-white.
On the Hunt for Barn Quilts…
For quite some time now, Rob and I have wanted to go back to Prince Edward County, one of our favourite parts of Ontario, to spend a view days immersing ourselves in its bucolic countryside, visiting its wineries and vineyards, catching up on its restaurants and lively food scene, exploring the Barn Quilt Trail and taking photographs.
For one reason and another, we haven’t quite made it, but now - at the end of this month - Rob is flying out to Vancouver, to visit her old friend Nora (soon to turn 99) while I will take the car three hours east and a little north of here, along the shore of Lake Ontario, to spend a couple of days on my own exploring the County.
And so, expect in next month’s blog post a few photographs of barns and barn quilts, rolling vineyards, country churchyards, and the wintry lake, glistening, perhaps, in wintry sunshine.
Just as a taster here are a couple of photographs, from visits as far back as 2013 and 2014.
Design Refresh
Hopefully you will have noticed by now this blog and website’s refreshed fonts and page design; check out the updated Home Page, too, and the new cover photographs.
It seemed like a good idea, quite frankly, amidst all the global doom and gloom, to brighten things up around here. And to signal a fresh creative focus on my own work, my own life, and the work and lives of people who matter to me - family and friends, but also the photographers and artists whose work I appreciate and admire.
Let me know what you think of the new look!
Flags on Bloor Street
Oh, and if you’ve spotted the Canadian flag at top left of the home page, and wondered if it is some kind of statement - yes it is. I am not someone who is usually prone to nationalist sentiment, but given you-know-who, it seemed appropriate, nay, vitally important, to say No, I/we are not American, and never will be.
We are actually quite nice people - by and large democratic, tolerant, law-abiding, considerate of others, appreciative and respectful of our friends and allies, and we have a public healthcare system which serves absolutely everyone. So: not American.
Sorry!
End Piece
The CN Tower from Trinity Bellwoods