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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More Light Than We Imagine
Night street photography in Nantes with HP5+ and Nikon FE—how city light surprises after dark, even with shaky hands and tired eyes. Read more
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Waiting for the Light: Reclaiming the Cathedral with Ilford HP5+
Ian’s contemplative journey through Nantes’ Saint-Pierre Cathedral, captured on Ilford HP5 Plus film with a Nikon FE. This black and white photography essay explores reclaiming sacred space from municipal spectacle, celebrating grain, silence, and winter light. A meditation on film photography as spiritual practice and architectural reverence in France’s historic cathedrals. Read more
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Sit Rep IJM
This is not a recovery story. It’s not inspirational. It doesn’t end with light breaking through clouds. This is a raw, unfiltered Sit Rep—written in the thick of exhaustion, fury, and familial love that persists despite everything. If you’ve ever smiled while screaming inside, resented the people you’d die for, or wondered why “self-care” feels… Read more
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The Collection
Six luxury fine art prints, made to last — from Hangzhou’s misty paths to Shenzhen’s sizzling night streets. Each printed on archival paper, signed, and shipped with care. A quiet collection for those who see deeply. Read more
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A New Chapter for IJM Photography
IJM Photography now offers a curated collection of museum-quality, print-on-demand photographs—intimate fragments of light, memory, and place. Featuring timeless black and white and rich colour images, each 8×10 inch print is crafted on archival paper, ready to bring quiet beauty to your home. Discover moments captured with care, now shared with you. Read more
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Notes, January 2026
A raw, reflective journal from January 2026: navigating global disillusionment, memory, fatherhood, and the quiet return to film photography after burnout. Honest thoughts on decency, presence, and making art in a fractured world—by IJM Photography. 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.
Stay in Touch
One letter a month — never spammy, always sincere.
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