it was only a training session

 

 

 

It was only a training session. A last minute change for a pre-season friendly cancelled for Covid-19 , but how good did it feel to be back amongst our Villa family!

 

So many lives have been lost to this horrible virus. We mourn for those bereft. We salute the workers of the NHS for their enduring courage, compassion and dedication. We salute those who kept our country running in the worst health crisis in living memory - the shop-workers, the tradesmen, the taxi-drivers, the bin-men and so many more. And we salute the brilliant scientists who have delivered in record time the vaccine that provides us all with a life-line.

 

And now, for one brief moment we come together. It was only a training session. But we embraced life and the hope of normality to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

house

 

 

 

 

 

celebrating freedom day

 

 

we were phoning in

from

a

phony home

from

the back of beyond

from

 a backward glance

keeping

a

respectful distance

 

 elbow bumps

and

insecticide

contagion

we were phoning in

from a diffident world

and

we traced

a long 

stain

running 

down

the pavement

let's raise a glass

let's raze 

a world

let's dance and sing

let's

keep our distance

 

 

 

 

 

 

the passage of time

  

silence

 

 

observation/reflection/enlightenment

 

 

 

 

 

 procession for hilary

 

interment

 

 

These pictures chart a healing process undertaken through photography.

 

'The Silence' is a mixed-media image constructed over a number of years using photography, collage and photo-copying techniques.

The man split in two is me. In between is a photograph of my father and my sister, Hilary. My father died aged forty eight of a massive heart attack. Hilary died aged eight. She pedalled her bike from behind a bus to cross the road. Her God-father, our family doctor, was waving at her. She never made it to the other side.

 

The tape across my mouth symbolises the silence that followed in the wake of these deaths. No-one explained anything to me. Not family, not friends, not my school, not anyone. I was left alone, a ten year old, in deafening silence as I tried to figure out things myself.

 

'Observation/reflection/enlightenment' is about coming to terms with death and then the subsequent birth of both a learning disabled son and a physically and learning disabled grandson.

 

All things pass. Eventually.

 

The photograph was taken on a Lomo, a little plastic film camera. I took it in a lift at work surrounded by reflected light.

 

'Procession for Hilary' is the only photograph in the series rendered in colour, and deliberately so. A Mexican mariachi celebration.

 

It's part in homage to Anton Corbyn's brilliant 'Atmosphere' video, part in homage to Peter Blake's sublime Parade collage work.

 

The final piece is 'Interment'. Is this the final resting place for the ashes of Hilary or just an eye on the ever unfolding universe?