It was 35 years ago today that I married my wife Anne. How long and how short that time span seems.

When I look back at some of the photographs taken then, many of the faces albeit young are no longer with us. They have lived and died yet life goes on. Mother-in-law continues to dwell in an ever backwards travelling time zone in a care home and all around us despicable things are happening: teachers stabbed, fellow artists undergoing dramatic surgery and yet we, in our final few weeks of a degree course squabble over the equal sharing of costs for a once in a lifetime show.

Life is for taking full on in the relatively short time we are on the Earth plain yet it never ceases to amaze me how little some people put into shared experiences. Such a lot has happened in the last few weeks. We have had an auction that started off with two donations from Sam Mellish and snowballed (I think Sam would like that description) into an event supported by students, local and international artist that yielded £2467.50. Add that to the resounding success of the Kickstarter project and we have the deposit for Free Range. We also had our Open View for Lux Locus Spectaculo at Ipswich Town Hall last Friday where we were visited by the Provost of UCS and many Fine Art students yet few photographers outside of the showing group turned up. Why is that? Local people turned out to revel or dwell on the stories behind the images yet the majority of the year group was nowhere to be seen. It is times like this when I realise that upbringing and awareness are all. Growing up in a post-war Britain , not longer after rationing was abolished, made one value what opportunities we were offered. Now it seems, further education is a God given right rather than something that has to be earned. Three years ago I wondered whether I would be good enough to be given an opportunity a second time around having squandered my first University offering in 1973. Sadly, I find that most of what I expected from intelligent debate has not been met but I have grasped the whole concept with open arms and sucked what I can out of the privilege of being an undergraduate. I feel no older that the twentysomethings yet I feel my age when it comes to duty and contribution to the group goal. One has to wonder at the reaction of my peer group had we been studying 100 years ago. Would the consistently missing 50% have been draft dodgers or would they have signed up for the King’s shilling, thinking only of the short term, or would they be sufficiently faith driven to be conscientious objectors?

I say the time is now right to cough up and pay up. A fare to London is over £70. Anyone wanting to show in Free Range should at least pay that towards the transport costs. Life is not a charity and the sooner some of my fellow students realise that the better. The time for research is done. Now is the time to stand up and do or be done.