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Canivaux

The French word <canivaux> means the gutter. In Paris, every day, street sweepers (wielding lurid green plastic versions of the witch’s ‘besom’ broom)  block off the gutters near to drains using carefully crafted mini dams made of rolled up carpet tied with string. They turn on the water from a hydrant further up the street and let the water sluice all the trash down towards the ‘dam’. They then turn off the water and scoop up the rubbish into their carts. I began photographing first the exotic rolled up carpet-dams, then the content of the gutters themselves. The ‘odd one out’ in this series is the pink ball, washed up on a beach in Thailand… This was the image that started me thinking of photographing  found (or abandoned) objects in the streets of Paris – unexpected objects out of their original context.  The series is part of my work on abandoned objects in Paris, called Paris Traces.

Walk along Deptford Creek

A few days ago I led a group of students on the Goldsmiths MA course in Photography and Urban Cultures along the Ravensbourne River in Deptford, starting at Brookmill Park and ending at the Thames. The river becomes Deptford Creek at Deptford Bridge. It was a damp day and we arrived at the park later than I’d hoped, so the tide was already coming in. This makes the river appear to be flowing backwards (upstream).

While most of the students were off exploring the park, Cati, one of the students, from Portugal, and I struck up a conversation with two men – Terry and Paul – who were sitting on a bench gazing at the river. I’ve met Terry (on the right in the photo) before and know that he’s very knowledgeable about the wildlife in the park and around the river, as it winds through reeds and willow trees. They quickly pointed out a fox, hunting on the opposite bank as a heron also hunted at the water’s edge. A family of ducks swam up and down the river, watchful of the fox. The fox, who had an injured leg, moved slowly towards the heron. But as it came close, the heron took to the air, beating its great wings like a pterodactyl, lifting itself heavily into the air and flying downstream.

Terry (right) and Paul in Brookmill Park, Deptford

Cork, Ireland

Paul Ringrose: Medium Fallen Pine, Lissard

Spending a couple of weeks’ holiday in Union Hall, on the south-west coast of Cork, Ireland, with the family, we met painter Paul Ringrose, who has been showing a magnificent set of paintings of woodland interiors, mostly fringing the coast near to where he lives. The show was at the Doswell Gallery in Roscarberry, and came down on 3 September. Photos of the paintings on the gallery’s site give a good idea of the work.

http://www.doswellgallery.com/3/7/Past_Exhibitions/Paul_Ringrose.html

L.I.P Greenwich Annuale

The London Independent Photography Greenwich Group Annuale has opened at the Viewfinder Gallery in Church Street, Greenwich (near the Cutty Sark Greenwich DLR station).

You can download a low res PDF of the catalogue here:

Third Annuale Greenwich_lowRes

or a hi res PDF of the catalogue (for printing) from here:

https://www.wuala.com/Greenwich%20LIP?key=IzQA3dRGpwjc

Or you can view it view it here:

Third Greenwich Annuale

Paris: Montparnasse Tower from the cemetery

London Independent Photography’s Greenwich group is holding its Third Annuale, at the Viewfinder Gallery (in Greenwich, naturally), starting on Thursday 12 August:

http://www.viewfinder.org.uk/exhibitions/upcoming.html

There is a press release:

http://ymlp.com/z8dAIE

and also a catalogue, available online for £1

http://www.viewfinder.org.uk/shop/index.html#thirdgreenwichannuale

This is the first time I’ve exhibited, but L.I.P. is a vibrant and dynamic group, and the Greenwich group especially active. There is also a link now between the Greenwich group and the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths, University of London, where I am a Visiting Fellow, doing sessional teaching on the Photography and Urban Cultures MA, as well as the Urban Edge seminar series:

http://www.gold.ac.uk/cucr/urban-edge/

There is just one image from each member in the show (see above). This one is from a series on The Urban Forest: Paris and London.  I will be showing some of this work and talking about it at the next Crossing Lines meeting in Goldsmiths on 17th August, at 6 pm:

http://www.gold.ac.uk/cucr/urban-edge/

The Urban Encounters Urban Photography Summer School is in its second week, at Goldsmiths, with a great group of students now busy with assignments and course work. They will be showing their work on Saturday 14th August.