My, how times fly. It only seems like yesterday that Edgelands opened but 6 weeks have elapsed and all the events in between seem somewhat unreal. Last week saw me back to my old trade working in London. I was so grateful for the dodgy weather as it made teaching that much easier. I wondered whether I had packed for the weather, after all it was the last week of August and London can be a cauldron of hot humid filthy air but no, it was more like November, and I hadn’t.
Following class each day, I’d try to take some air, if that is what was at street level and being adjacent to Euston I took off in the general direction of Kings Cross only to make the mistake of walking through Euston Square where the was more fug and smoke than when steam trains were the only option. I coughed and gagged my way through the hordes of puffers making a note to return via the station concourse. Dodging itinerant commuters and grockles was preferable to breathing in the excrement of others.
Back in Suffolk on Thursday and it was a morning of admin and book keeping then off to the Museum of East Anglian Life with Moira Ellice from the RPS for a few publicity shots. It was whilst being shot that I saw my first wheelchair bound visitor and we both saw the delight on his face of being able to see the images from his chair height. We did a dry run during the hang with ‘Peter’ sitting on my plastering steps to simulate a wheelchair but this was the proof of the pudding and a good pudding at that.
Friday was a first in that a group of artists I fraternise with were having a pop up art show in Holywells park. Now, I have lived in Ipswich since 1987, been in the area since 1981, yet this was my first time in the park. It was good to see both the artists and their work and the park. I shall be back especially as the wild areas are well catered for.
Saturday saw me dropping off flyers at the Museum, the small reproduced medium format images from the show had all but gone so they needed re-stocking then it was collection time for my Lines work from the Freudian Sheep and later on the finale of Kate Jackson’s residency at Smiths Row.
An alcohol free day as there was driving to do but I fell into my pit and slept like a log.
Sunday was very much a research day into university Photography courses for the RPS Photobook exhibition. One of my jobs is to make contact with degree courses around the country to encourage student entries but the dilemma is the degree of secrecy that some universities have in disclosing course leaders or staff who teach. A good 50% of the websites had no contact details unless one was trying to get on a course. Quite a frustrating day indeed.
Today I made it over to Thornham Magna to see Gillian Allard’s ‘AfterLife’ exhibition at ‘Beyond the Image’. Whilst I waited for the show to open I took a couple of thorny images.

I had hoped to catch up with Gillian but sadly I was there too early for her. I very much liked the work in that it was shot in a theatrical way yet made us look at the carcasses or bits of dead beasts. The lighting in her work is excellent and there is another week to run so check it out.
I might have a day off tomorrow….