Another year has started. Before I step too far into 2025 I would like to take a moment to look back on the past year.
A photograph is a memory and there is often a joy looking through them and being reminded of the moments when they were made.
In that spirit here are twelve photographs (one for each month) that I made in 2024.
January
For a few years now after Christmas I will head out onto the local streets with my camera and a few brightly coloured baubles. I am on the look out for abandoned Christmas Trees. Recently they would have been the centre of family celebrations; now they are left out on the side of the road for collection. I wanted to celebrate them so I redecorated and photographed them. The process has become a little ritual for me around Twelfth Night. Here is one of the photographs I made in January 2024. You can view some of the photographs made in 2025 here.
February
In February I was acting as a tour guide for my brother and his wife over from the United States. It was the first time I had seen them for some while and I think I overdid some of the walking I made them do around London! This photograph was made on a walk along the River Thames past the refurbished Battersea Power Station. I just liked the geometrical shapes of the electricty box, the wall, the red roof behind and then the towers of the power station, especially as they contrasted with the bare branches of the winter tree.
March
At Easter towards the end of March I visited Dorset. This feels like my second home and it is where I grew up so I take any chance to revisit as often as I can. This photograph is of Swanage, a traditional little seaside resort, and it is one of the photographs I made during the year I made to include in the calendar I produce each year. Each year I choose a different theme. For 2025 I wanted to celebrate seaside resorts. You can view more of the photographs from the calendar here.
April
Did you know that London is a forest? There are enough trees in London for it to be officially defined as a forest! When I learned that fact it inspired me to take a second look at the trees around me and imagine them as a magical forest slowly taking over the city. This one shows a young tree planted on the Holloway Road in North London with a double decker bus in the background.
May
In May a friend of mine was getting married. For family reasons the wedding had to be brought forward and she asked me to take the photographs. It was the first time I had done anything like this and it gave me a few sleepless nights beforehand! On the day though I found that once I was behind the camera I was in control of the situation, directing and posing all the guests for the different sorts of photographs required for a wedding album. This photograph was not posed though. The bride was just about to walk with her father into the room where the ceremony was to take place. As she did so she turned her head to look behind her. I liked the idea of her standing between two lives and looking back one last time on her old life as she headed into the future.
June
One of my happiest places is out on the bicycle photographing the countryside. This photograph was taken in June on a road towards Hertford. As I cycled along I noticed path off through some trees on the side of the road so I decided to pull over to explore. Off the track I came upon some beautiful ferns and spent some time capturing their shapes and textures before I dragged myself and the bike back to main road to continue my ride.
July
Another of my favourite places in front of the computer working on my photographs. I always see the image I took as the starting point. At home I can then create what I saw and felt as I looked through the viewfinder. Contrary to popular opinion a photograph does not show the reality of what was in front of the camera. Rather, it shows what the photographer wanted to capture. Sometimes it can be a straightforward record of the scene but often it can be an interpretation; a view of the photographer’s experience of the subject. This photograph expresses what I felt when I looked through the viewfinder up at these buildings.
August
In August I returned to Dorset and on a gloriously sunny day I went for a cycle ride westward. This part of the county is very lumpy and this photograph was taken at a top of a climb – as I waited for my brother to join me ;-). It shows Eggardon, an Iron Age hillfort atop the Dorset Downs. One of my passions is the sense of the past beneath our feet and I sometime feel that most deeply in the county of my birth.
September
A river runs through London and I have been exploring its further reaches out towards the sea. This was taken at Rainham in Kent. The sculpture is called “The Diver” and it was created by John Kaufman. The artist’s own grandfather was a diver working in the dangerous waters of the Thames. Kaufman himself was late to his craft and he started work on this artwork in 1995 as a self-taught sculptor. The artwork was installed in 2000 and sadly he died two years later. His work is a memorial to the people who worked the Thames but also serves as a reminder to never stop living, something I try to remember everyday.
October
Perhaps one of the purest forms of photography is still life. It allows the photographer to be in complete control of their work. They can chose the subject matter, lighting and composition. I find that I can lose myself in the process of making still life photographs. If you are practicing mindful photography it can be the simplest genre of photography to try.
November
I seek out the delights of every season to photograph even in the darkest of winter but perhaps my favourite time to photograph is autumn, and then I head to the woods. This was made in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire in early November. The forest is renowned for its ancient trees grown large over the centuries but it is a living place and there are always new trees waiting to take their place. Perhaps this one will eventually reach the sky and in years to come grow into one of the venerable trees that make up this forest and delight visitors.
December
There are places I visit often but sometimes there are places I have never visited before. This is just outside the small town of Ware in Hertfordshire. It is an old tower, all that remains of a church that once stood here. It served the nearby village of Thundridge for many years but fell into disrepair in the middle of the nineteenth. I have visited the Hertfordshire countryside many times but I had never been to this woodland clearing where the remains of the church stand surrounded by some of its parishioners. It speaks to me of the need to explore more deeply.
….examine this region
Of short distances and definite places.
W.H. Auden “In Praise Of Limestone”
Thank you for taking the time to view the photographs I took during 2024 and to read my thoughts on them. I found it a therapeutic experience, looking back on happy memories with family and friends or out on cycle rides or walks. I also feel it has given me the inspiration to head out, view the world around me and make more photographs.
Watch this space!
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