sail away home

sail away home © caroline fraser 2014

Big box is packed and ready to go.

Assorted socks, scruffy winter clothes, wellington boots for beach photography and a tripod are about to wend their way across the world, hopefully followed by yours truly with her summer clothes and  smarter stuff for work.

Plumber is here again.

I am feeling impatient to get started on my big trip, and the only way that I can think of to pass the time ( for I am not going to start on the ironing) is to work on some old photos, having banned myself from taking any new ones until I start my travels.

Something new from something old.

new constructions by Paddy Hamilton

I was influenced by Paddy Hamilton's   winter show ( see above) in which he has re-fashioned his garden fences into something new after the recent storms on Dungeness. I love the geometry, and the optical illusions pertaining to boxes.

So I set to, with some old images of rusty metal and wider views at Dungeness.

navigational aid for fishermen

The image above is of a navigational aid for fishermen coming in to land on the beach at Dungeness. They aligned this T -shaped wooden structure with another diamond shaped one, and headed straight for home in the days before sat nav.

Fred Cuming RA has painted it many times, and in different lights.

You can see more of his work here




Still looking for something new, and clearly influenced by Fred's work I combined two images of the rusty containers.

containers

And somehow made them look more like wood than metal.

And by the time I had finished the plumber had too, and relieved me of another couple of hundred pounds.

I think it is time to leave the country before anything else goes wrong.

Dungeness...............a place for experimentation..........and a little therapy

Low tide , Dungeness, April 2013

Photographers are drawn in their hundreds to Dungeness. Camera club images of faded boats and rusty metal exist in their thousands. Fashion shoots are a regular sight. It has become a cliche to many.

So how to be original, if such a thing is ever possible in photography?

I spent a couple of afternoons there recently; one under glorious blue skies, and the other under oppressive black clouds that caused wonderful changing light on the sea, and that later had me soaked to the skin.

 It is never possible to tire of the place, and that is probably why people go there; it has an 'other worldly' feel to it. The incongruity of the small cottages under the shadow of the power station seem like nowhere else. It is special. It can, however, be very bleak.

Washing dries well.

laundry day, Dungeness

Architecture ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous.

red chimneys brighten the landscape in front of the power station

a holiday home resembles the power station or possibly a prison camp

So what to do, to be different?

I have been trying to find a way to use multiple exposure as a means to add something to my images. I like the unpredictability of the results; always preferring 'free flow' photography to the precision that a tripod brings.

On the sunny day I looked at the metal containers that are strewn across the shingle acting as storage vessels for fishermen.

red container

shapes and colours

overlapping numbers

outrageous colours as a consequence of multiple exposure

All good fun.


The results on a sunny day are quite different from those on the dull grey day on my next visit. I had recently talked to Fred Cuming RA about Dungeness, and love his paintings of the navigation sign shown below. He overlays his paintings with unexpected colours; something that I have not achieved.

Fred Cuming's website

5 overlapping exposures give the navigation sign a rather delicate appearance. 

a simple landscape gains drama from the mulitple exposure effect at low tide

Endless possibilities. And definitely more work to be done here.

I had the privilege to meet Paddy Hamilton of Dungeness Open Studios. We had a natter, and I found out a bit about what it is like to live under the shadow of the power station. His home appears welcoming, unlike the austere modern dwelling next door occupied by weekenders. The studio sheds  are full of interesting artworks and photographs taken at Dungeness. His generosity in relation to publicising my current show Transitions at Battle was unexpected and humbling.

a warm welcome at the open studio

If you want to know where to find him, he is "under the old black lighthouse".

the old black lighthouse, the railway station and the power station

If you would like to see some more examples of multiple exposure photography then I can highly recommend the following links to get your creative juices flowing;



Chris Friel  is currently working on a fascinating set of nudes

Rob Hudson creates poetic landscapes in monochrome

Valda Bailey creates beautiful landscapes from the South coast

I can but dream.