RAF Newton

Whilst walking along a footpath near the now decommissioned RAF Newton we passed these abandoned security buildings and munitions storage depots. The open gate was too tempting to pass so we ventured inside for a quick look around. Exploring spaces which have seen so much life, activity and secrecy make your mind wander. These buildings are fascinating enough but I wanted to inject some of the sense of nostalgia and contemplation I felt wandering around the site as well. I thought the best way to do this would be to contextualise this space with its surroundings by layering other images of the site from the same day onto the walls.

My friend, Matthew Hoyland, took an amazing series of photographs of other parts of the base which you can find here [link].

Here's some more information about RAF Newton from Wiki...

"RAF Newton was a Royal Air Force station, 7 miles east of Nottingham, England. It was used briefly as a bomber base and then as a flying training school during World War II.

Built on the site of a pre-war civil airfield, Newton was assigned to No 1 Group in June 1940, when Nos 103 and 150 squadrons returned from France. These squadrons were re-equipped with Vickers Wellingtons in October 1940 but moved on to more suitable bomber airfields in July 1941.

Newton then became a training base, and for the next five years No. 16 (Polish) Service Flying Training School provided basic and advanced training for Polish airmen serving with the RAF, using RAF Tollerton as a satellite landing ground.

The station became the headquarters of No 12 Group, Fighter Command from 1946 until 1958, when Technical Training Command took over the station for electronic fitters courses.

Later the station became the home of the RAF School of Education, who moved from RAF Upwood in 1972, and the RAF Police Training School, who moved from RAF Debden in 1973 bringing their gate guardian - a Hawker Hunter F1, WT694 (now at Caernarfon Air World) - with them. Both of these units transferred to RAF Halton in the 1990s.

The abandoned houses on the base were used to film scenes from the film This is England.[1] It has also been used for the series Robot Wars after it transferred to the commercial UK channel Five TV."

Bayon Temple, Angkor, Cambodia

This is Bayon, built in around 1190 AD by King Jayavarman VII, it is the central temple of the ancient walled city of Angkor Thom. Bayon represents the intersection of heaven and earth and although it is a primarily Buddhist temple it also incorporates elements of Hindu cosmology. The Hindu influence is the legacy of traders from India who spent part of the year in Cambodia waiting for the trade winds to change in order to return home after selling their wares. It is a reminder of how the meeting of cultures can produce harmony, beauty and integration rather than segregation, oppression and bitterness. A valuable and poignant message now more than ever. 

This is my favourite piece of my own work to date, maybe because these buildings and their surroundings are aesthetically stunning but perhaps more likely because of my own attachment to the place and the memories and feelings it evokes in me. I'm not a religious person but nevertheless the beautiful architecture of the Angkor Temples left me with a feeling of tranquillity, awe and wonder which is difficult to describe but impossible to forget. 

The Beauty of Photoshop?

Concept - To show that the perception of beauty and 'perfection' portrayed by advertisers and the media, which is in turn affirmed by society as a whole, is fake and unobtainable. 

I used the stitches to emphasise the transformation and to highlight the morally ugly way Photoshop can be, and often is, used by companies to prey on peoples insecurities in order to sell products. 

The pursuit of this myth is a road paved in misery and self doubt whose only placebo comes from some magic ingredient or the blade of a knife. Know that it is fake, see it for what it is and to refuse to buy into it's ideology, or forever chase the mirage that is 'perfection'.

Part One - The Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

The aim of this blog is to showcase some of my work and, in doing so, to share with you 

my own perspective of the world.  

It's a reality we all share but to which our responses are 

as inherently unique and diverse as we are. 

These are mine.

Each one of these images is the result of a desire to remember, to preserve or to convey a given moment. 

To capture light and master time itself.