Photographing Scalpaigh & Norfolk: July 2013

On The Road No.2

June/July 2013

Some more pictures taken on the journey between Norfolk and the Western Isles during my last visit. If I seem to privilege Glen Coe then I can only say you would too if you'd been there!

The Isle of Skye is a really magical place - new wonders of geography to gasp at around every corner - astonishing in all weathers.

I'm planning my next trip to the Hebrides in October. In the meantime Caroline and I are heading south to Provence for a warm holiday....I feel another blog coming on.

As before, the best way to view the photographs is to click on one to bring up larger versions which can be scrolled through.

If you can brighten your screen you will see the pictures at their best.

Rannoch Moor, Lochaber

Mandalley, Invergarry

Kyle of Lochalsh

Between Tarbert and Scalpaigh

BBC Weather, Glen Coe

Manish, Golden Road, Harris

Isle of Skye

Huishinish road, Harris

Low cloud, Tarbert - Scalpaigh road

Foot of Glen Coe

Post box, Scalpaigh

Black Cuillins, Skye

Glen Coe

Eilean Donan, Loch Alsh

Merkadale, Skye

Sartle, Skye

Satellite dish, Glen Coe

Uig harbour, Isle of Skye

Towards the Quiraing, Skye

Top of Glen Coe

Scalpaigh / Tarbert area

June 2013

Compliant cow, Isle of Harris

I travelled up to Harris in the last week of June. It's a two day journey comfortably and as before I stayed overnight with my friends June and Roddy just outside Fort William. How I came to meet them is another story for another time, but they are always welcoming and generous with their hospitality and I couldn't continue this project without them.

In Tarbert I found a copy of Photographers of the Western Isles, by Martin Padget, published in 2010. It contains reference to and images by, amongst others, Gus Wylie, who is my unofficial mentor for this project, and by the American photographer Paul Strand, who made pictures in the Hebrides during the 1950s and who Gus met at the ICA in London in 1971. Gus recalls Strand saying that beyond any consideration as to the quality of equipment or materials he might use, the most important thing Gus needed to identify was a person who would act as a local 'go-between' who would create bridges between artist and community. This advice was passed on to me and in this and many other ways I feel a strong sense of continuity with these earlier visitors and their artworks and due humility to be found in their company.

I am grateful to all the people on Scalpaigh and in the surrounding area who have allowed me to invade their homes and places of work. Individuals, families and other groups have been unfailingly generous with their time as well as interested in what I'm up to. What I am up to is recording lives and landscapes in a fairly opportunistic way, following leads, relationships and ideas as they occur, developing an account of what attracts my curiosity in corners of Harris, Norfolk, and on the road in between.

+++++++

There are lots of pictures in this Posting! As before, the best way to view the photographs is to click on one to bring up larger versions which can be scrolled through. Due to public demand I've also begun to add captions!