[08-10-08] Books Read 2006 - 2008
Current mood: Literally Exhausted
Category: Literally Exhausted Blogging

Tidying up my 'Books' section. These books, for good or bad, were read up to recently:

2006 :

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
JK Rowling (2005)

Learning The World
Ken Macleod (2005)

Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell (2004)

Labyrinth
Kate Mosse (2005)

Close Range
Annie Proulx (1999)

Transcendent
Stephen Baxter (2005)

84 Charing Cross Road
Helene Hanff(1970)

2007:

A Matter Of Honour
Jeffrey Archer (1986)

Bridget Jones' Diary
Helen Fielding (1995)

Angels And Demons
Dan Brown (2000)

Evolution
Stephen Baxter (2002)

The Dreadful Judgement
Neil Hansen (2001)

Shadowmancer
GP Taylor (2003)

Foundation And Earth
Isaac Asimov (1986)

Eternity
Greg Bear (1988)

The Worthing Chronicle
Orson Scott Card (1981)

In Alien Flesh
Gregory Bensford (1988)

And There Was Light
John Capon (1972)

Does Anything Eat Wasps?
New Scientist (2005)

You Only Live Twice
Ian Fleming (1964)

A Short History Of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson (2003)

Man Alive!
Michael Green (1967)

The War Of The Worlds
HG Wells (1898)

The Time Machine
HG Wells (1895)

The Time Ships
Stephen Baxter (1995)

Artemis Fowl
Eoin Colfer (2001)

Around The World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne (1872)

Tales From Ten Planets
Arther C Clarke (1989)

On Chesil Beach
Ian McEwan (2007)

Against The Fall Of Night
Arthur C Clarke (1946)

Diamonds Are Forever
Ian Fleming (1956)

Enduring Love
Ian McEwan (1997)

Northern Lights
Philip Pullman (1995)

The Subtle Knife
Philip Pullman (1997)

The Amber Spyglass
Philip Pullman (2000)

2008 :

The God Of Small Things
Arundhati Roy (1997)

The Drowned World
JG Ballard (19)

The Planets
Dava Sobel (2005)

The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins (2006)

An Inspector Calls
JB Priestley (1945)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Adrian Vaughan (1991)

The Seeds Of Time
John Wyndham (1956)

The Rest Of The Robots
Isaac Asimov (1964)

Foundation
Isaac Asimov (1951)

Tokyo
Graham Marks (2006)

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[13-09-08] Normal service will be resumed ...
Category: Blogging

Basically, I lost control of this page and gave up. But then I thought, no, sod it, it's My space and I want it back. So I wrestled with the Angels and hacked my way back in.

Meanwhile ... please be patient while I tidy things up.

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[31-12-06] New Year Revolutions
Current mood: renewed
Category: renewed Blogging

And so, as the old man collecting his pension from the post office that was 2006, is mugged by the hooded chav junkie that is 2007, it is time to look back on the past twelve months and weep.

I quite enjoyed it really. I moved my photography forward, not without the help of this forum. But I have neglected a couple of other projects, so I need to get them going again. I have an Encyclopeadia to write. Two actually. And a novel.

So, now, as is traditional, it's time to analyse my life and dredge up the clutter and rubbish clogging it, and replace it with shiny new things. Therefore ... I resolve to:

* Read at least one book a week.

* Get a new computer.

* Get an SLR digital camera

* Sort out my paperwork.

* Reduce my archival storage.

* Eat healthier food.

* Eat less chocolate.

* No, bollocks to that, the chocolate stays.

* Buy some new clothes.

* Replace all my smalls with new ones.

* Travel further afield for the good of my photography.

* Find a church I like.

* Resume work on my Projects.

* Get a haircut.

* Write to my Friends more.

* Watch all those films everyone talks about that I haven't seen.

* Sit on a beach and read a book.

* Drink more wine.

* Learn to cook more things.

* Go to more gigs.

* Learn to drive a boat.

* Get a girlfriend. I say that every year :(

* Pray more.

* Catch up on music I haven't got round to hearing.

* Help someone in a crisis.

* Tidy my room.

* Return My Library books and pay the fine (over £12 now)

* Get a new futon.

* Visit London.

* Do some walking along the coast.

* Glastonbury!!!!

* Replace my toothbrush.

* Give some money to a good cause.

* Get a nice toilet seat for the bathroom.

* Visit Isles of Scilly.

* Do the garden.

* Have an eye-test.

* Get some contact lenses.

* Pay off my debts.

* Look up some old friends.

* Transfer more video to DVD.

* Scan my old photographs.

* Remaster tape archive.

* Remaster vinyl archive.

* Perform something. Somewhere.

* Learn to play guitar better.

* Dig out all the fluff in my belly-button.

* Do a course in something.

* Get my last remaining films developed.

* Make a cup of tea [now I mean -brb]

* Buy more book shelves.

* Start my novel.

* Spend more time in a pub.

* Explore Leigh Woods more.

* Go to our Museum and various Galleries more.

* OCR some old books and put them on the net.

* Forgive someone.

* Buy a Cat.

* etc.

Yeah, right, like all that's gonna happen :(

Currently listening : The Circling Hour By Iona Release date: 02 November, 2006

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[30-12-06] Image Reflection
Current mood: exposed
Category: exposed Art and Photography

I've been especially prolific this year, and I've actually got many more that I didn't get a chance to put up, so I have enough to get me through the Winter I think. This is a selction of images from this year, that particularly pleased me. Hope you enjoyed them too.

Wet Paving, Clare Street


Autumn Leaves, Castle Park


Shimmering Pond Water, Brandon Hill


Big Wheel, Castle Park


Wet Leaves, Castle Park


Climbers in the Gorge


Lord Mayor's Chapel, College Green


Swan Chaos


Leaf Canopy, Castle Street


Flowers and Glass, Chapel of Colston's Almhouse, St. Michael's Hill


Walking Makes Me Happy & Sane, Corn Street


Swan's Head, Welsh Back


Theophilus Departed 1845, Temple Church


Under Construction, Broadmead


Lichen as Art, Gorge


Green Acorns, Eastville Park


Jane Remembered, St. John's Churchyard


Fog on the Harbour


Roses, St. Michael's Church


Submerged Leaves, Castle Park


Sky on Fire, Castle Park


Stapleton Glen


Christmas Steps


Stone, Gas Ferry Road


Brecon Beacons


Fallen Angel, Mountain Ash Cemetery


The Heads, Ashton Court Festival


Exposed Foliage, Galleries

That's all folks! I'm seeing in the new year at a Gay Club Night called Wonky. I'm not gay, but my friends are Bi, and they know how to party! :)

Currently listening : Love By The Beatles Release date: 21 November, 2006

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[25-12-06] Jules' Xmas Lecture 2006
Current mood: merry
Category: merry Blogging

I hope you've all had a good Christmas. I went to midnight mass at the Cathedral on Christmas Eve, and that was quite special. I tend to play down my faith on these pages, not wanting to set myself up as more than I am. But, at this festive period, I suspend that usual reticence to speak of it. I'm fully aware that Christ was not born in December, and that the church took over a pagan festival in order to suppress it. He was almost certainly born in the Spring of 6BC, but that isn't entirely important.

It was the purpose that matters, and it's not one we can ignore. I'm not talking here about dull theology, but the simple concepts, such as hope, redemption, faith, trust, forgiveness. And, yes, tolerance. I don't see intolerance in the gospels, I see inclusion, justice, and enlightenment. Christ mixed with the wrong crowd. Instead of snotty-nosed priests and intellectuals, he spent time with asylum-seekers, tax collectors, prostitutes, fishermen, lepers, outcasts.

We all know about the ten commandments, and that it seems to be a list of Do's and Don't's - mostly Don't's, but he reduced them all to two simple ideas. One was to pay attention to God, the other was to treat other people in the same way you would expect them to treat you. Such as, fairly, justly, respectfully. I get annoyed with the extremists who hijack Christianity. The right-wing lot who see the world in terms of what you should NOT do.

In history, immense harm has been done in the name of Christ, and it shames us who are Christians. It shames us that we condemn and accuse. That we reject and avoid. That we hurt and destroy. And the same goes for our intellectual failures. Why do we continue this witch-hunt on gay people? On sex outside of marriage? On women in the clergy? On other faiths? Who are we that we know so much, that we can point the finger.

Why do we still throw the first stone?

Why do we forget the speck in our own eye?

Yet, for all it's human failings, I see my faith in terms of it's deeper mystery. And so it's really important to me, and make's me who I am. And no, it does not conflict with my scientific leanings. I think God is cleverer than that. When you make a universe, you're pretty bloody good at what you do, and it's a bit much for us to work it all out straight away. But, I think we will, and then ...

It's nearly 2007, and instead of a world in which we're all wearing silver suits, we still have jeans, and chavs, and crime, and homelessness, and council estates, and potholes.

But we can also create virtual realism with computers, we have mapped the human genome, we have digital things, and the net. There is a space station. It's only one, and it's not a big wheel, but it's there, and it's growing. And, tentatively, we have the desire to return to the moon again, and stay there. And eventually, we will colonize other planets, when we work out how to get there.

But, we are harming the planet we live on. And religious intolerance threatens enlightenment. For all our advances, we are still a backward species, and maybe we shouldn't get carried away with our successes. We need look beyond our borders, beyond the atmosphere, into the mysteries above. Some of you would accuse me of being a dreamer, but I find it hard not to think of big problems in terms of the next hundred years, the next thousand, rather than the next period of office. Some problems don't have short-term solutions. Nor will they go away.

So, I'm worried about Global Warming. Because we may be causing this cycle. But, understand, that this has happened many times before. Throughout the geological evolution of the earth, it has seen huge temperature changes and landmass movement. It's what the earth does. We live on a congealed mass of solar-system debris, hurtling around a star at great speed, being wrenched this way and that by another lump of rock we call the moon, that is causing incredible stresses on us. Much of that time, the atmosphere was unbreathable, the surface temperature unbearable. In it's youth, the earth was active, covered in volcanic zits, and constantly shifting.

The little bit of land we call England has been all over the place. It's been at the equator, under water, moved upwards to here, been covered in mile-thick ice sheets. It's had a tough time. But now, our little planet is enjoying it's middle ages. It's settled down, but still bad-tempered. And I suppose, if we make it itch, we shouldn't be surprised if it tries to scratch itself.

Our tiny civilization grew up just after the last ice-age ended. In fact BECAUSE it ended. There was a window of opportunity, when the conditions were right for one primate to make that leap of imagination into actual sentience. We became self-aware. But if we think the earth will now just stay static for us, we are mistaken. It doesn't do that. It is geologically volatile. One day, in the far future, everything we have will be gone. Every city, every road. But I would like to hope that, by then, humanity will have left this cradle behind, and will be exploring the nearer stars.

We know there are planets there now. We already know that. We detect them via the gravitional wobble they inflict on their parent star. But we're now refining the means to analyse their atmospheres by measuring the light that passes through them. It's clever, cutting edge, but we can now do it. And so, we'll know soon enough which stars have planets with compatible atmospheres. And we will go there, and settle. When the America's were settled, we took our European place-names with us. Boston, Cambridge, Birmingham, York, Bristol, are all in England. But now we have New York, and New Orleans, and Boston, Mass, and Paris, Texas.

So we may have planets named New Earth, and so on. But, that's if we can get there. That's if mankind doesn't retreat into itself in a frenzy of self-imposed moral back-lashing.

I'm worried about religious intolerance. I grieve for the mess Islam seems to be in. It is really a very tolerant religion, that has contributed much to our art and science. Indeed, whilst Christianity was floundering in it's flat-earth, sun goes around the earth stage, Islam was naming the stars. When you look up, what do you see? Rigel, Mizar, Alnitak, Aldebaran, Mirzam. Arabic names. Now, Islam is being hijacked by bigotary and ignorance. But, it's a growing scourge.

In the US, schools are being forced to teach Creationism as a fact. Creationism is not just poor science, it is not science at all. In science, you observe then conclude. You may have a hypothesis, but you let the observed facts speak for themselves. You don't fix the answers in advance, then desperately struggle to cram the facts to fit.

If the world doesn't look and behave like one created in 4004BC, then it probably wasn't. If an evolutionary process best explains the observed natural world around us, then that is probably how it came to look that way.

Occam's Razor. The simplest explaination is probably the correct one.

You don't do God any favours by making him look like an idiot.

But, look, there's much beauty to be seen in the world, and I urge you to go and find it. Whatever your circumstances, try to experience something that gives you Joy. And Peace. If you are an artist, create some new art, and pour your soul into it. Make it live. Learn something new. And improve your knowledge in what you already know.

Some more things to do:

Read a book you have never read before.

Listen to some music of a genre you have always avoided, and learn to like it.

Take a walk and write about the journey.

Drink some wine with a friend, and treasure the memory.

Write a letter to someone who has hurt you. And forgive them.

Read your diaries.

Tidy your room.

My theatre tutor used to tell me to say 'yes' when faced with any challenge, rather than to assume you can't do it, and say 'no'. Say 'yes' and try it. Then you will see if it can be done after all. Maybe it doesn't work, but at least you tried it. Serendipity. It is the magic in creativity. The unexpected thing.

Be good.

Jules, Bristol, Xmas 2006

Recommendations:

Watch:

Lion Witch + Wardrobe (dvd - extended version which includes fabulous doc about Lewis)
Coast (dvd bbc)
Planet Earth (dvd bbc)
British Isles: A Natural History (dvd bbc + titchmarsh)
Michael Wood (anything)
Time Team (dvd c4)
2001: A Space Odyssey (dvd)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (dvd)
The Railway Children (dvd)
Lost In Translation (dvd)

Read:

The Artists Way (book - Julia Cameron)
Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze (book - new scientist)
84 Charing Cross Road (book + dvd)
Bridges of Madison County (book + dvd)
Stephen Baxter (anything)
Arthur C Clarke (anything)
His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman books x3)
Dark Is Rising (Susan Cooper - books x5)
Ghost World (graphic novel + dvd)

Poetry:

Walter de la Mare
Edward Thomas
Henry Vaughan

The Wind blows out; the Bubble dies;
The Spring entomb'd in Autumn lies;
The Dew dries up; the Star is shot;
The Flight is past; and Man forgot.

Henry King (b. 1592)

Quote:

'An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind'

Ghandi

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[22-12-06] The True Christmas Atmosphere
Current mood: Bloody Freezing
Category: Bloody Freezing Art and Photography

It's curious that the prevailing image of Christmas remains that of the Dickensian, with snow and ice and snowmen and sledging and stuff. Yet, this almost never happens here. Right now, England is blanketed in 24h fog, and has caused massive disruption at the major airports. Those who would normally flee the country in search of sun at Christmas (why?), now find themselves languishing in draughty marquee's with nothing but British Airways tea and biscuits for company. Perhaps next year they might consider staying home for some quality time with the children. The magic of Christmas cannot be avoided.

This fog is flipping freezing, too. I know, as I was out in it at 5am this morning, and it was only a mug of tea that saved my fingers. Brrr. So, anyway, here's some images from today. Just quick shots of the area. Instead of looking pretty, it all looks quite dull and drab, really. I stalked a gull, who was not happy. The bridge is Bristol Bridge, essentially the origin of the entire city. The name Bristol comes from an anglo-saxon form Bricgstow, meaning 'settlement by the bridge'. Someone built a bridge here in the C10th, and a small town grew up next to it. Now half a million people live here. And every bloody one of them is out panic shopping. The big wheel thing is now up and running, and was slowly spinning clockwise in these pictures. I could hear screaming from the top. I'm not sure if that was fun, or calling for help as each passenger succombed to hypothermia. The last one was taken from high vantage point, and matches the view point of this image: click me. You can just make out the square tower of St. Peter's to the left of the wheel, which, like a distant galaxy, is seen edge on.

Currently listening : Songs for Christmas By Sufjan Stevens Release date: 21 November, 2006

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[09-12-06] Fancy A Spin?
Current mood: Dizzy
Category: Dizzy Art and Photography

Well, this was a surprise. I saw this being assembled yesterday afternoon, and today it was almost finished. Against the cold blue sky, this gigantic wheel towered incongruously over the shell of St. Peter's. Seventy years ago, this would have been in the middle of the street! During my lunch hour, I did a quick photo-survey. I liked the way, from certain angles, it seemed to be attached to St. P's itself. I suppose when it's finished, I should go up it. But, though in certain respects it ressembles London's Millennium Wheel, which revolves at a slow leisurely rate, I suspect that this one will spin rapidly, as one might to seperate blood, so that instead of shooting pictures from the apex, I'll be shooting my last meal.

Imagine, then, my further surprise, when, leaving work, I emerged into the early evening darkness to find that the wheel had burst into fiery light, and was pulsing, and occasionally spinning, one car position at a time. No passengers, though, so it must be in the testing phase. I took some images from the ground, but decided to take most from the top level of the Galleries car park, which is level with the hub, and right opposite it. And it was ruddy freezing up there, too. I used my little tripod for these dusk images, which is so small that, when folded up, it's quite hard to see with the naked eye.

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[08-12-06] Lord Mayor's Chapel Gets A Face Lift
Current mood: restored
Category: restored Art and Photography

For several weeks now, the Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green has been hidden by scaffolding as it's West Front was given a good clean. Now the scaffolding is gone, and the stonework is gleaming in it's glorious raw colour, sans pollution and goodness knows what else was eating it. This is much nearer to how Bristolians of old would have known it, before the age of coal. One should never forget that our ancestors saw these buildings clean and much less weathered than we see them now. Nevertheless, I am less keen on the sundial, which now lacks that scuffed quality that I liked so much, and which I featured in an earlier Blog (Sundial). It was put up about 1720, by the way.

I took these about 3pm this afternoon, as the dial says, and already the sun was low and sinking fast, casting a golden light on the magnificent west front. This window is an exact Victorian replacement of earlier one, which, remarkably, is preserved in a garden on the outskirts of Bristol, at Brentry, incorporated into a kind of folly.

The church itself is known by several names, according to it's history. It was originally founded as the chapel of St. Mark's Hospital - an Augustinian order - in 1220 by Maurice de Gaunt. (He was the grandson of Robert Fitzharding, who himself was founder of St. Augustine's Abbey, facing it on the other side of the Green, and now the Cathedral.) It was thus also known as Gaunt's Hospital, and it's complex of buildings and orchards occupied most of the block of land behind the chapel, eastwards to the Colston Hall. The tower, seen lurking at the back, was built 1487.

At the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, it was sold to Bristol Corporation, and has been in their ownership for the past 450 years. Consequently, it is the only church in the country maintained by a city council.

The school, Queen Elizabeth's Hospital for Boys then occupied it, as did the Red Maid's School. Hugenot's from France found refuge there, using St. Mark's as their place of worship from 1687 to 1722. Since then, the Mayor and Corporation has used it as their formal place of worship, as they still do. If you pas it, and see the door open, I urge you to go inside, it's fantastic. There are 700 year old tombs of knights inside!

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[28-11-06] New Cam Randoms
Current mood: uber
Category: uber Art and Photography

Having to work meant not much chance of any decent testing of my new cam's capabilities, but I was pleased with these initial results. Some close-ups of budding (!) trees in Castle Park, with the tower of St. Peter's behind. A bit of Gull Bothering on Welsh Back, and Swan Hell.

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[27-11-06] Red Rain Is Gonna Fall
Current mood: turning
Category: turning Art and Photography

We're still getting some clear bright sunny days, but more frequently, the rain is falling with the last of the leaves, and the mulch is gathering. But there is still beauty to be found, as some trees cling jealously to their clothing. Refusing to be naked.

These are few more from Castle Park, taken last week. And they are the last taken on my old Sonny, for yesterday, I bought a new one. There will still be images from the old one, many of which have yet to be used. But from today, I am using a new cam. It smaller, leaner, and has more mega-pixies. My excitement is immense.

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[26-11-06] Aging Photographs
Current mood: faded
Category: faded Art and Photography

I have been experimenting with sepia tones. I had some images that I liked to some extent, but with which there were either problems with colour, or weaknesses with the picture. And that this prevented me from using them. So initially tried simply adjusting tone, then rendering into black and white. But I was still not quite happy.

Then I thought of my Aunt Olive. She's gone now, but I inherited from her family photographs, many from the 1930's, and they are all sepia toned by age, and this gives them such a lovely antique character. So, I thought, what if I tried to do the same. And so I did.

The views are all taken during 2005, but look much older. I was also inspired by the work of Victorian photographers such as John Beven Hazzard, and Julia Margaret Cameron, who produced such striking images, from the dawn of photography.

The first one is of a tall masted ship during Bristol's Harbour Festival. The second is of a grave hidden amongst trees at Arnos Grove Cemetery,Bristol. The last two are both of the ruined church of St. Mary's, Tintern, in the Wye Valley. I've shown the coloured tile floor there before, but the tower, encased in ivy has a forlorn lost look like this.

Harbour Sails


Hidden Grave


Ivy Tower


Abandoned Church

Currently listening : Pulse By Pink Floyd Release date: 10 October, 1995

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[22-11-06] Poem : Twilight
Current mood: Haunted
Category: Haunted Art and Photography

TWILIGHT

When to the inward darkness of my mind
I bid your face to come, not one hue replies
Of that curved cheek, no, nor the faint-tinged rose
Of lips, nor smile between the mouth and eyes:
Only the eyes themselves, past-telling, seem
To break in beauty in the twilight there,
And out of solitude your very ghost
Steals through the scarce-seen shadow of your hair.

Walter De La Mare (b. 1873)

__________

This image was made from several elements. The model is Rebecca Cusworth (studio self-portrait). The chapel and two side graves are at varied locations within Arno's Vale Cemetery, Bristol, and were photographed on a bright sunny day. The foreground grave is located at St. Mary's, Tintern, in the Wye Valley, and was also photographed in bright sun. Digital manipulation was achieved using PSP X with about a dozen layers.

© Rebecca Cusworth / Julian Hynam

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[20-11-06] Brandon Hill 2 : Cabot Tower
Current mood: extroverted
Category: extroverted Art and Photography

As everyone knows, America was discovered by Bristolians. Well, sort of. In 1492, Columbus only found the West Indies, using pre-existing knowledge. Bristolian mariners had almost certainly been sailing the coast before he even got there by at least a decade. John Cabot was a Bristol mariner, though actually born in Genoea, now in Italy, and came to settle in England. His name was originally Giovanni Caboto, but he changed it to something more local sounding. (Probably 'cos he was fed up being called Giovannal Cabotal, by the local accent). He sailed out of Bristol in his boat the Matthew on 20th May 1497, crossed the Atlantic, and discovered a new found land on 24th June. He spent two weeks plodding up and down the coast, then returned to let everyone know. He actually thought he'd he found a shorter route to Asia, which is what everyone was looking for at the time. Convinced there was more to find, he sailed again the following year, with five ships, and was never heard from again.

At the summit of Brandon Hill is Cabot Tower, built in 1897 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Cabot's voyage. It's really tall, and inside you go up far too many steps that wind round so tightly and steeply that it actually makes you dizzy. It's even worse coming down. One slip, and you end up as mush at the bottom. A similar tower compliments this one on the coast of Newfoundland.

At the top, are two observation levels that are frighteningly high. But the views across the city are simply breathtaking. Nevertheless, I don't much recommend leaning over and looking down below if you have vertigo. And, is it me, but does anyone else have to fight an inner urge to jump off? So, here are a selction of views from the top. I've not given a complete panorama, as it takes too many images to do it properly. Nor have I indicated what everything in the images is. There are two many things. But I did try to give the tower itself some attention, as it's made of really interesting stone, which has fossils embedded in it.

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[19-11-06] Brandon Hill 1 : Pond Life
Current mood: introverted
Category: introverted Art and Photography

Another lovely place to explore in Bristol is Brandon Hill, a roughly conical shaped hill right next to Park Street. It's land that has never been built on, though it's been well landscaped. A place of paths and trees, ponds and benches, that circle round and round 'til you reach the summit, where you find the magnificent, and scarily high Cabot Tower.

During the summer, I spend a lot of time in here, as it's the best place to sit and eat, imho. Bristolians love to frolick on the grassy slopes, conducting intricate mating rituals. Not-quite-mature students also love to grass sled at astonishing downhill speeds. The views out across the city are just lovely, and I never fail to come out rested after a visit.

It's a haven for the city wildlife, too, with all the usual species you find in your average park. In part one of this blog, I shall concentrate on them. In part two, we're going to ascend the tower itself.

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[17-11-06] Site Under Construction
Current mood: Constructive
Category: Constructive Art and Photography

Like any city, Bristol is in constant flux. Never static, never standing still. Buildings come and go, streets even, so that over the centuries, it flexes and squirms like a growth on the landscape. The Second World War enforced traumatic change, both because of devestating losses due to bombing, and also because of the vast post-war schemes of the local planners. Huge errors were made in the 50's and 60's, and slowly they are being undone. But the vision of large scale development is not lost, and Bristol is currently going through perhaps the greatest change in half a century, as once again large-scale development is taking place, and tall cranes puncture the sky.

I have been recording these changes.

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