To me there seems little point in taking individual photographs. If I take a picture I like, I spend the rest of my life looking for others to keep it company. After a while I realise that seemingly very different subjects show similar preoccupations. Most of my photographs are taken in cities and are about the absurdities of consumerism. When the opportunity arises, I add to a collection of photographs of urban trees. Some of these were given an outing at a Comma Films/Kiosk Gallery showing during the 2008 Islington Arts Festival where the series was given the title ‘A Tree Made of Real Wood’ in a nod to the late, great Ivor Cutler’s ‘A Wooden Tree’. It was an early blog entry and at the time I wrote:
In cities, trees and urban green spaces are reminders of what has gone. Trees are placed on streets to camouflage the concrete. Nature never looked more unnatural. If they do survive and do what comes natural, they become a problem – leylandii and sycamores get asbos.
The above was taken in London and is a picture of a picture of trees pasted around a building site. As I said, the absurdities of consumerism. And here’s a link to the story of Hulme’s Birley Tree and the absurdities of regeneration.
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