Yesterday morning I met Mrs O in town after she had seen to some of her mother’s affairs. On the ay home up St Peters Street she remarked upon seeing Robin come out of his gallery with a three legged dog. I was going in there any way to see Beryl Scott’s lino cuts so when Robin came into the gallery I mentioned this and he then coaxed said three legged dog out to meet us. What a delight. She was so eager to say hello and managed to shake hands with me most elegantly despite her handicap. Apparently she is a form of dog refugee from Croatia. She has certainly landed on her three remaining feet with Robin. Such a kindness taking in damaged animals.

Today was book-keeping. I had to sit down and recover from entering all those expenses from setting up the Edgelands exhibition. So many bits of paper but that was a full morning’s worth of effort and then off to the Freudian Sheep to drop off new work for the next exhibition. It is always strange walking into the gallery on drop off and pick up days as it reminds me of sports changing rooms from school – all semi-clothed then when we show up for the OV it is like a stage set and a different one every time.

Then it was a rush home quick change and tuna mayo buttie then a hike up to Halesworth to hear Bill Jackson talk about his recent work – North Sea Drawings and all that formed the genesis of the project including Manichaeism. I had seen the work before and the short film made for his solo exhibition earlier this year. I was minded of Sugimoto when Bill showed his first experiments of shooting the North Sea in next to no light. I was heartened to hear Bill speak of the importance of weather patterns and the clarity of winter air as these factors are a big part of how and when I make Edgelands work although I need visible light for my work including my night time images of industrial parklands such as Landguard terminal.

I never tire of hearing Bill talk about his experiments and more importantly, almost in a scientific way, being able to repeat the process and where an experiment fails, being able to analyse why it might have failed. This lecture was very much about photography being an art and a science.

Many young photographers should note that this recent series took over 6 years to make and that was using digital technology to capture natural phenomena.