Walking Commentary
Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023
Texture is a part of every sense in your sensorium.
Sometimes an adverb is enough, as illustrated by poet Diarmuid Fitzgerald:
in the marshes
without my map –
joyously lost
Thames Way: haiku and tanka (Alba, 2015, page 27)
As a reflection seismologist, I spent four decades reducing sound echoes into visualisations of rock formations long buried from view.
As a photographer, I seek to capture incidents that might not otherwise be seen.
As a rambler, I try to emulate reflections: they leave no trace.
“The most important question we must ask ourselves is, ‘Are we being good ancestors?’”- Jonas Salk
One square kilometre of water bounded by some 1.5 million cubic metres of hewn rock, Dún Laoghaire Harbour was the the largest man-made harbour when the world popultion reached 1 billion.
You will see the back cover of Quarried shows a castle that bristles with telephony devices. Perhaps one of them is delivering this post to your smartphone. The castle is actually a watchtower, built in 1807. Napoleon was a threat and the coast was fortified with Martello Towers to delay if not withstand any invasion plans he devised. The tower was needed for line-of-sight signalling to ships and to the soldiers stationed in the string of Martello Towers that protected the island. Two centuries on and the tower continues to do what it was built for. It relays a cloud of communications.
Michael Kenna’s style inspires me. I’ve seen his framed prints for sale in books, online and in galleries. The most amazing for me was an exhibition curated by Chris Beetles in the Huxley Gallery in 2012. Kenna’s art form is his photographic printing of interesting arrangements and patterns found in the natural landscapes. His art is all about tones. Nearly always absent are people. He nearly always works without any form of digital assistance. His analogue world is one of film, chemicals and paper. There’s a continuity that runs throughout his oevre.
