Tag Archives: Urban Photography

The View From Redcliffe Bridge

“The big wheel keeps on turning
On a simple line day by day
The earth spins on its axis
One man struggles while another relaxes”

Massive Attack: Hymn of the Big Wheel

Location: Here

“In the city there’s a thousand things I want to say to you, but whenever I approach you, you make me look a fool. I wanna say, I wanna tell you about the young ideas, but you turn them into fears. In the city there’s a thousand faces all shining bright and those golden faces are under 25. They wanna say, they gonna tell ya about the young idea. You better listen now you’ve said your bit-a. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re sick of that kind of crap, but you’d better listen man because the kids know where it’s at. In the city there’s a thousand men in uniforms. And I’ve heard they now have the right to kill a man. We wanna say, we gonna tell ya about the young idea and if it don’t work, at least we still tried In the city, in the city. In the city there’s a thousand things I want to say to you.” John Paul Weller, In the City, 1977.

Here in the UK, we manage to produce more than 100 million tonnes of waste every year. In less than two hours, the waste we produce would fill the Albert Hall in London, every eight months it would fill Lake Windermere, the largest and deepest lake in England. The cost of cleaning up all that litter costs taxpayers almost a billion pounds every year.£1billion would fund 38,644 social care workers or pay the running costs of 4,400 libraries. Alternatively, it would enable the NHS to pay for 33,200 nurses or 26,900 paramedics or allow the fire brigade to fund 31,990 extra firefighters each year. The £1billion spent on cleaning our streets could pay for 704,200 elderly household electricity and gas bills for a year or pay for one billion free school dinners – more than enough for every primary school child in England for a year. The money could be invested in the green economy to help support more sustainable and healthy ways of life. Help make more than 333,000 homes more energy efficient or create more than 193,000 community food growing spaces.

“Afternoon boss.” I smile, acknowledge the welcome with a slight nod of the head and sit down. There are 2 people before me and the 3 chairs are already occupied. Intermittent silence is broken with idle chat concerning a variety of subjects, cars, football, local curiosity, disputes, and hearsay. Men getting their haircut can be a curious ritual, but one passed down from father to son.

A Rainbow’s End

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A war to end all wars. To pay the ultimate sacrifice to afford freedom to others. Never forget the price paid when you see the tears flowing and the wretched signs of fear scaring the faces of those trying to escape tyranny and war. The greatness of a country is measured in the remembrance not to turn its back on the reasons why past generations laid down their lives.

Each 12″ plastic figure in a hand-stitched shroud is linked to a fatality on 1st July 1916 using records from the Commonwealth War Commission. 19240 Shrouds of the Somme, College Green, Bristol 11th -18th November 2014. Rob Heard is the artist behind the exhibition, which marks the end of the Battle of the Somme on 18th November 1916. For more information click (here)

Holding my breath and counting the clouds. Inhale, exhale. The sun slowly descends tonight. I’m standing on the decking at the rear of my house, just watching the city and the skyline. I live here, and I live. The city is talking, and her whispers carry through the air. I sit on the step and just watch, listen and take this photograph.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA