Four decades behind the lens. Seven years of sharing the journey.
Welcome. I’m Ian — photographer, horn player, and writer living in the Vendée, near the Loire-Atlantique border. This blog has been running since 2019 and shows no sign of stopping.
You’ll find black and white film work, travel essays, orchestra photography, philosophical digressions about why any of us bother pressing the shutter, and the occasional camera review written by someone with strong opinions and a perhaps unreasonable attachment to grain, Art, and maybe a little history, or things that make you go, “hmmm….” No algorithms chose what appears here. No agency wrote it. Just forty years of looking, and seven of writing it down.
The panama hat, the walking stick, the hearing aids, the beard, have become characters in this story.
Start anywhere. Stay as long as you like.
Latest from the Field
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Sainte Anne, and the Grue
This weekend I haven’t taken any photos, but as they say so well in Blue Peter, here’s one I made earlier. These photos are now two weeks old. They were taken from different sides of the Loire. The first were taken in the Hangar à Bananes on the Saturday when I was with my daughter,… Read more
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Happy birthday Gilet Jaunes
I’m writing this in a theatre before the tune up begins in about half an hour’s time. I was thinking back to yesterday and going out to Nantes to take a couple of photos. I was in a foul mood on Friday; a colleague who was a nice bloke and all round good egg has… Read more
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Mass in the Cathedral
If you’ve read the Lourdes article then you’ll know that I am a practicing Catholic, and after a break away from the Church I’m trying to get back to Mother Church. It was Sunday, and well, I hadn’t been in the morning as I could see the clock turning. I remembered a friend telling me… Read more
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Nantes in Novembre
Halloween has come and gone and the countdown to Christmas has begun, but no trees until at the earliest the beginning of Advent or at the latest St Nicholas’ Day. The weather is now officially miserable and rainy. And with the hour having gone back the nights seem to be staring earlier. The rain is… Read more
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À la recherche du temps perdu…
The writer expresses a longing for past experiences and memories, triggered by sensory cues like smells and tastes. Nostalgia evokes moments from boarding school, tensions with parents, and youthful dreams. A sense of wonder and loss permeates the reflection, as the writer contemplates the divergence of their past aspirations from their present reality. Read more
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Zoo de la Palmyre
During the Summer, I prioritized spending time with my family instead of pursuing photography. We visited the Palmyre zoo to allow my children to see animals up close. Despite differing opinions on zoos, I believe it provides an opportunity for educational observation and forming connections with the animals. I captured zoo moments with a Canon… Read more
Featured Projects
- The UK Chronicles
A solo journey through Britain with the Fujifilm X100F — Northumberland in late summer, the coast at Alnmouth, light coming low off the water. Traveling light enough to actually notice things. - The Film Archives
Black and white film photographs made before this blog existed — Nantes, Clisson, and the Vendée. The negatives had been sitting in binders for years. This is where they finally got out. - Photography Philosophy
Not technique. Not gear. The question underneath all of it: why does any of this matter, and what are we actually doing when we press the shutter? A series of essays without easy answers. - Inside the Orchestra
Three years photographing the Symphonique des Bords de Loire — rehearsals, concerts, and a tour to China. The quiet moments before the music starts, and the ones after. - If you’ve been reading this site for a while and there’s a frame that stuck — the street, the light, something from China, the Vendée, Nantes, wherever — I can probably make you a print of it. Just send me a message.
About the Photographer
A photographer, ever so slightly stubborn, analogue at heart and digital when needed. I’ve been developing my own film since the 1980s. I built this blog in 2019, not for followers, but for focus.
I shoot what moves me, and I hope, sometimes, it moves you too.
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