I'm a member of a photography group in Birmingham led by Kate Green, an absolutely fantastic tutor. This week's challenge was to shoot, 'The Urban Landscape' in the manner of a favourite photographer.
This had me stumped on two counts. First, I live in the heart of the country and the urban world is one upon which I increasingly turn my back. Secondly, with one or two notable exceptions (such as the fantastic tea-houses of Terunobu Fujimori), I do not profess any interest in buildings or architecture. We have some excellent photographers in the group who cover this area particularly well, but it's not something that floats my boat. As the French say, 'chacun à son goût'.
Accordingly, it was not a project to which I particularly looked forward. And then I thought of cinematography and two cult TV programmes. The first was, 'The Avengers', a quintessentially eccentric 1960s adventure series in which the streets and countryside of England were, bar the main protagonists, habitually devoid of human life. The second, 'Twin Peaks' was a delicious study of a weird and twisted America produced by David Lynch, a gifted photographer in his own right.
With this in mind I set off to produce some shots that might conjure disquieting emotions behind an urbane surface.
My first, the photograph above, was of a petrol station currently undergoing renovation. The purple-painted barrier questioned what might be concealed behind.
The second photo was of an all too familiar scene in our post-Covid world. An abandoned pub. This time no renovation was underway. Whilst the telephone wire running from the top right might suggest a link to the world it had long since been severed. The pub lay empty and haunted.
Perhaps my unconscious mind deliberately sought out images related to fuel. There are three in this series. This one reflected the spiralling cost of filling up the tank.
Continuing the theme, my fourth image featured another petrol station. This one was fully functional, yet it seemed dwarfed beneath the gathering clouds.
The penultimate photograph is my favourite. An empty bus-stop. It has so many possible stories.
Young lovers who kiss and touch nervously but tenderly; mothers with giggling children excited to journey into town; the elderly waiting for their very last bus home.
The final photograph was taken as the light faded. An old agricultural building condemned to die behind yet another fence. A gleaming new-build estate waits ready to spring to life. It brings the cycle full circle.
