Wow, it's been such a long time, I forgot that this blog was still up and running.
So we begin another year, albeit academic!

Having just returned from holiday, realising that that was year 22 at the same holiday destination.  My nephew who joined us in the second week, was born the year after we began going.  What began as "Let's just try it out, we haven't got anywhere else in mind" has become a pilgrimage in a way.

The dynamics of the story, though, are a reflection on life's journeys.  Some who began the journey as the visionaries, the leaders, the driving force, are now learning to facilitate, to watch, to allow, while others who began as recipients of treasured space, are now having to take on the role of setting the scene.  All the while we intertwine in and out of each other's stories, take on new roles, relinquish old ones, face up to our limitations and seek to be an expression of the family of God in microchosm.

Flowery frills

These flowers were part of a wedding display and my immediate thought on taking the photos was how the natural light gave the effect of the flowers having been painted rather than photographed.

Edible link

Having moved to a new house three years ago, I really liked the idea of growing my own food be it vegetable or fruit. When I got round to purchasing a new camera it seemed that the formation of this food happening before me was even more miraculous than I had previously taken for granted, so I tried to capture it on film. This is my first effort at a raw photo in both theme and technique.

Martin's link

The City

One's perception of a city depends in large part on one's point of view at different times. Urban sprawl can seem uniform and without distinction if one's pov is unfocused and distracted. While each city has its own unique features, by and large most modern cities have lost a great deal of what might at one time have made them unique and recognisable. Maybe not lost, but one has to look harder to find that which truly identifies a particular metropolis.
I have tried to use these photos not as ways of identifying, but rather as ways of looking at the banal, and indistinct.











View from a bridge with the twist emphasizing the tension and forces latent in the structure itself. Lines that draw us to a point that is unseen from a starting base which is disconnected from the strands.


The fractured look of the campanille suggests the juxtaposition of the sacred space overlooked and outmuscled by the secret and anonymous building in whose view the holy is broken and silent.











High street in the old part of town. Reflective surfaces can often bring that which is unspoken and invisible to the naked eye to the fore.
















Looking at the landscape from a different viewpoint suggests something new about the intent of the design. Where does the line end, does the glass road continue forever? Are we looking up or across the city, if we look up what is it we hope to find? Why is it that man's view architecturally is so wrapped up in what lies above? What is it that truly points us to heaven?







Where angels fear to tread. Where is the next footstep?

Distressed brickwork. What has happened here, where has the missing brickwork gone, what part of the stone has found its way into other living stones as they pass by? What forces have been at work to create this particular shape, what other factors have had to be present to shape these stones. How do they reflect our proximity to each other in the urban landscape?



Martin's blog