Summer scene

'Hollister, California, 1922'

Well, of course it isn't California. It's Birmingham. And for all the corn-fed homoerotic Americana, it's just shopping.

I could be wrong but I guess that like many other Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns this is shot by Bruce Weber. There's a strange picture of BW in bed covered in cameras here.

Secret skatepark

I was wandering around the area behind the Custard Factory and heard a curious noise coming out of a warehouse building underneath one of the railway arches. There was an open window; I stuck my head in to see what was going on and saw this.



I'm sure it isn't 'secret' to the many kids who use it, but to me it seemed secret -- the kind of place I would have wanted to go when I was young, had skateboards been invented and had I been able to use one without killing myself...

World of Leather

Getting ready...

Crowds begin to gather to watch the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on a large-screen broadcast in Birmingham's Victoria Square.

More on Madin

There are a number of posts on here in which John Madin's brutalist Central Library features. When it was announced that it was scheduled for demolition, I started to look deliberately for pictures in which it featured -- such as the one below.


It makes for an iconic backdrop if you can find the right kind of action happening in front of it, as in the more recent ones below.

Felliniesque

I've written before about the angels of photography -- the photographs you wind up with when something else seems to take over and look after pressing the button.

I shot lots of film again at Pride this year but in many cases, no matter how you try, what you get looks resolutely like what it is -- a gay pride procession, and no matter how much fun this may be, what I'm looking for ideally are photographs that transcend their literal circumstances and are open to wider interpretation. For me, that's when photographs start to get interesting.

This was the best picture I took in three rolls -- and it is the one I have literally no recollection of taking. The focus is off by miles, but what the hell -- sharpness isn't everything, the angels of photography know that.

I do also like this one: