In 2000, London’s previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, began the process of fixing forty years of mistakes that had been made in the pursuit of the impossible — the comfortable accommodation of mass motor vehicle use in a dense city centre. He recognised that cities are supposed to be places for […]
The geology and landscape of the Scottish Highlands are famously divided by the Great Glen fault. Less famous is the Moine Thrust Belt, running almost parallel to the Great Glen a hundred miles north. Here the rocks and landscape of the northern Highlands are pushed over those of the Hebrides […]
At the start of the 15th century, when the Ming Dynasty was young, Beijing was established as the new Chinese capital — a heavily planned city, a rectangle laid out on a north-south axis around the great imperial palace, the Forbidden City. Continue reading at cotch dot net…
A great limestone scarp runs the breadth of Somerset, the Mendip Hills, famous for their karst landscape — the gorge at Cheddar and the caves at Wookey Hole. Continue reading at cotch dot net…
In the winter, while I neglected to post on the blog, I spent some time out of the way to concentrate on work. Helmsdale in Sutherland was about as out of the way as I could find. Continue reading at cotch dot net…
A young smartly dressed woman gets on, concentrating on her phone call. The bus pulls out before she has time to mount the stairs, and the motion throws her to the side, her bag swinging and bashing the passenger behind her. Fifty. Nine. To. Streatham Hill. She climbs slowly, letting […]
At Christmas it snowed in Dorset. It’s rare that it snows in Dorset, and I’ve not previously photographed the area in the snow. So here’s a quick photo essay of the Blackmore Vale at Christmas.
The awesome Science Is Vital campaign organisers kindly asked me to accompany them to Downing Street to capture the delivery of their petition of 35,000 opponents of science cuts. Over at cotch dot net, I have a short photo essay on how to deliver a petition.
With everything that has been happening, I’ve neglected to mention the Thames Barrier to Teddington exhibition at the gallery in Foyles bookshop at the top end of Charing Cross Road, or indeed even been to look myself. I usually ignore calls for entries in photography competitions, since 99.9% of them […]
I love the Durham Township photoblog — all the fabulous atmospheric shallow-focus photos of rural Pensylvania. Especially the ones of the traditional county fairs and farm shows. The kids with candyfloss, prize livestock on display, and old fashioned family entertainment. Continue reading at cotch dot net…
On saturday, a couple of thousand nerds gathered outside the treasury to be noisy, and to argue the case that science is vital. The scientists are getting their contribution in early ahead of the “comprehensive spending review” that is to be announced this month. Having been accused by their secretary […]
This time last year, I was cycling around the lake district, Los Lagos, in Chilean Patagonia. I was there with Computer Aid International, who refurbish old office computers and send them to schools, hospitals, and development projects around the world, including the small city of Osorno in Los Lagos. Below […]
At the weekend around 12,000 people marched through London in protest against the policies of the Pope. A photo essay on cotch dot net explains why we were there.
Over at cotch dot net, I’ve thrown together a quick photo essay on the Victorian park cemetery at Arno’s Vale in Bristol, which until recently was rather derelict and overgrown. You can read the while post at Arno’s Vale Cemetery.
With Section 44 stop-and-search found to be in contravention of the declaration of human rights this week, the people of Photographer Not A Terrorist organised a victory flashmob at New Scotland Yard. For pictures, and to find out what it was all about, go over to cotch dot net.
Matt Brown reports that the awesome Grant Museum of Zoology is to close on July 1st. The Grant Museum is a hidden gem. It’s tiny, and shoved away somewhere deep within the labyrinths of UCL, between Totenham Court Road and Gower Street, near Goodge St tube. There are no signs. […]
A quick review of this week’s Law In Action on Radio 4, which looked at photography and the law — particularly jobsworth office managers who think it’s their job to harass people, and other police initiatives that lack any credible evidence-base. Read it at cotch dot net.
This past week, I’ve used a week off to prepare enough blog posts to keep me going through the weeks when I don’t have time to write, and also to prepare for getting a serious hardcore science blog going again. I’ve been writing from a barn on the side of […]
Today is the tenth birthday of London’s Millennium Bridge, a much loved modern Thames crossing, and a symbol of London’s improving centre and riverside environments. Find out more about the structure in this celebratory photo essay at cotch dot net.
It is reassuring to know that a City can not sue me for libel, even under English law, because I said some not very nice things about the nasty, brutish and racist city of Cincinnati today. It’s OK though — I have the pictures to back those words up. Read […]
A short early-morning photo-walk around Bristol’s Floating Harbour — an account of how I first came to be spending my time taking photographs — is available to read at cotch dot net.
This time not about elections but about geology: the great shifting slopes of Mam Tor in the Derbyshire Peak District; a desolate scene of man’s abandoned attempt to tame the difficult landscape. Read it at cotch dot net.
May Day is a day of traditions, a day of marching with banners and dancing around the May Pole, dressing up as trees and casting adrift flower boats. It’s a day of looking silly and causing a disturbance. A day of village fêtes, called off when it rains. Continue reading […]
A pair of weekend mini-photo essays on spring walks around the skyscrapers and scruffy pubs of south and east London. Part 1, here, part 2, here.
Continuing the weekly weekend mini photo essay strand, here is the latest, on Portland Bill.