Ealing's Polish Palace (6)

Every year Open City an architectural initiative co-ordinates a weekend  for the public to visit buildings of interest.

A little boy who kept his promise

(and offered to fight a duel with UKIP's Nigel Farage)

The story behind one of the buildings open to visitors in 2015 was like a fairy story- a little boy promised his Grandmother that he'd build her palace and years later on a quiet suburban road in Ealing he created a mini-Versailles as he said he would.

Sadly the boy's grandmother had died but the pleasure of such a folly in 21st Century London can't help but make you smile.

It's full of features

You can find out more about the house here.

The  Limited edition framed print  is available at Just £59, Photograph size  A3, other sizes may be available.

Best Friends Forever (5)

All the world ahead of them

During the summer I joined an evening course as part of group of Photographers through City Lit.

Each week we'd walk and take pictures it was a chance to see various parts of London out by the East London location used for the track and field events of the 2012 Olympics as the sun was low in the sky I caught this moment.

I suppose we all imagine narratives for people we'll most likely not see again - but this feels like a friendship that those involved think will last pretty much forever - and who knows perhaps this one will?

Print available for purchase : Limited Edition Framed A2 Print £86  (other Sizes may be available).

The Cinema Comes to Town (3)

At the risk of being too local here's another picture of Ealing Green but this one features the traveling  cinema we had with us during the summer of 2015.

The Photograph was published in the Ealing Gazette last summer.

Published

The photo' has big blocks of bright colour and gives the impression that it could have come from any time in the last 75 or so years.

Surprisingly large it offered a cinema experience with an almost Art film mentality - one of the things that's gone wrong in Civic Ealing is the loss of the cinema - if you ask people what Ealing means to them Cinema comes high in the list of associations - when I moved here in the late 70's there were three cinemas now none.

It's been another story with the studios that have continued to generate business for the borough and let's hope the situation gets sorted before too long.

The Cinema as a topic has featured in other pictures I have taken and one of these  was used in a front page story by the Gazette.

Surprisingly provided a Picture house experience

The  Limited edition framed print  is available at Just £59, Photograph size  A3, other sizes may be available.

Northfields Fish (2)

Another published picture shows a quirky piece of local marketing

The  Limited edition framed print  is available at just £59, Photograph size A3, other sizes may be available.

Avenue Antiques (4)

A news picture of West Ealing's The Avenue

The  Limited edition framed print  is available at Just £59, Photograph size  A3, other sizes may be available.

Kew The Gardener (1)

I suppose one of the things that for me sums up a good picture is a certain sort of timelessness - but  this doesn't necessarily preclude something that looks bang-up to date.

A smaller framed version of the picture

This picture showing a gardener at Kew Gardens doesn't say 2015 if you look you'll see the detail the camera has captured - the water drops  frozen by the short exposure time.



Looking at this I'm reminded how photography has revealed detail previously unseen- with pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge details of animal motion were  revealed and in this photo' you can see individual water drops.


Taking photographs out in public there's a dilemma to resolve (often) about having people in the shot - I've shown another picture taken the same day - it feels more ordinary and a person opens up our musing to a whole new narrative.

Also taken on 27th February 2015

For a while I did consider printing this picture in monochrome but I liked the muted tones and the near silhouette that materialised without too much computer fiddling.



The  Limited edition framed print  is available at Just £59, Photograph size A3, other sizes may be available

Ealing BEAT in Bond Street

Photographs also available for show Bond Street Pop-up :

1) Kew The Gardener  £59

2) Northfield Fish            £59


3) The Cinema Comes to Town          £59


4) Avenue Antiques                            £59


5) Best Friends Forever                      £86


6) Ealing's very own Polish Palace    £59


7) A Painterly Chiswick House        £118


8) Tamil Festival West Ealing Style £59


9) A Summer's Evening Drink         £59


10) Call Green For Samaritans           £59