by Tim Gander

We’re Not “Post-Covid” yet

Looking at when I last posted here, it seems I’ve let things slip a bit. I hope you’ve missed me.

My excuse is I’ve been busy with work, a book, a photo festival and covid finally got me. Then I got over covid, and work came back with a vengeance.

Ok, a bit more detail to explain all this.

Since December 2021 I’ve been working on my first photo book, What Happened Here (the book of the Saxonvale project I shot between 2017 and 2019). I started work on the book when I agreed to be part of Photo|Frome. I was invited to be part of an exhibition and to present a talk on What Happened Here, which meant I really needed to have the book in place for the festival.

Putting a book together isn’t easy if you want it to be the best it can be, and never having done a book before made this an even more challenging kind of challenge. However, I worked with designer Victoria Yates for the book layout and colours, and graphic designer Nik Jones who produced a map to help tell the story.

Then as Photo|Frome approached I got involved with planning my talk as well as another event I was to be involved with, a conversation with documentary and portrait photographer John Angerson. All this while work continued to roll in.

But just as the festival got underway, John caught covid and had to pull out of his talk. Then I got covid and had to cancel mine. It was all a bit of a mess really, and deeply disappointing.

screenshot of photofrome website homepage
Screenshot of the Photo|Frome website

 

What I haven’t been disappointed by is the success of photo|frome. Although I wasn’t one of the main organisers, I did jump in to help and support as much as I could (cut short only by my testing positive for Covid for 10 days). The festival was testament to the need for high-quality talks and exhibitions around photography, and there’s little outside London that caters to such a broad range of people as Frome’s festival did. The plan is to make it even bigger next year and they’ve already got national and international photographers lined up.

Equally encouraging has been the reception my book has received. I had people reserving copies before it was even printed. I expected to sell the majority of the books at my talk, but sales have been steady even without that. And because the book is very limited edition (just 50 hardback copies and 100 softcover versions), there’s a risk that by the time I come to reschedule the talk, the books might already be sold out.

So there you have it. I think it’s fair to say I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately and that’s not going to change drastically in the next few weeks at least.

I have my talk to reschedule, client work to handle and I’m also painfully aware just how neglected my current personal project on Salisbury Plain has been. I need to get back to that before it keels over completely.

In the meantime, if you’d like to support my personal work, and be the proud owner of a very limited edition photo book, head over here to purchase your copy of What Happened Here. Every copy I sell justifies all the stress and hard work just that little bit more.

Thank you,

Tim

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 by Tim Gander

What Happens Next?

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. By the way, do you also suffer the anxiety of not quite knowing when to cease starting emails and texts with that line? It’s ok, you’re not alone! I’ll stop around Jan 20th, if that’s any help.

At the end of last year I promised a look back at 2021 and a look forward to 2022, so here goes. I won’t dwell too much on last year because my final post of 2021 summed up most of what I wanted to say. However, as I wrote that article, I didn’t know how soon I’d be back on the subject of covering vaccines.

More Vaccine Work!

On December 22nd, at a time of the morning I prefer not to know exists, I was up and on my way to Stonehenge. This time I was covering a pop-up vaccination clinic at Stonehenge, again for NHS Banes, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG (BSWCCG). The plan was to invite Solstice visitors to have vaccines once they’d celebrated the sunrise over the stones.

It was a cold morning, but the sky looked spectacular as I came across Salisbury Plain and the visitors were treated to a beautiful sunrise. Of course I missed it because I was busy setting up alongside the clinical team who had commandeered the visitor centre cafe for their work.

The session went incredibly well and by the time I left Stonehenge, my client had a rush set of images for immediate press release.

A young woman in colourful Winter Solstice costume is vaccinated by a man.
A Solstice celebrant gets her vaccine at the Stonehenge visitor centre cafe.

The shot shown above got really great take-up by local press and on social media. Even my humble tweet got over 4,300 impressions! Not bad considering we didn’t even know if anyone would take up the jab on the day.

Except for shooting a quick wedding for friends who got married on December 28th, that was pretty much it for me!

So how is 2022 looking?

More Of The Same, But Different

Well I’ve already got bookings in the diary; a mixture of stills and video work, and I’m looking to plan more trips to Salisbury Plain soon. I didn’t get much time over Christmas and New Year to do any end-of-year tidying-up, so that’s sort of happening now. I did get time to start on an exciting new project, but more on that when the time is right. Exciting eh?!

My main focus as we enter 2022 is to keep developing the corporate work, while building the Salisbury Plain project into something more cohesive and rounded. That might sound a little vague, but I hope it will become clearer as the year progresses.

A waggon is laden with round hay bales with a farm track running past.
From Choulston Farm near Figheldean, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

In the meantime, this shot from November was a good way to end 2021’s Salisbury Plain sessions. I’m keen to get back, but with a long-term project, patience is everything. I need to update the project gallery with some of the latest work as I try to make the personal projects as self-sufficient as possible. So don’t forget, if you like what I do and would like to see more, please feel free to support me in whichever way you can! None of this happens without my amazing supporters 🙂

And finally, whatever your plans for the coming year, I hope they come good for you. Here’s to an exciting 2022!

 

 

 

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 by Tim Gander

Print Competition Update!

Okay, so I know I don’t normally spam you with posts, but things just got a little lively.

You might remember I turned my ko-fi fundraising goal into a competition to win an A4 fine art print. Well doing that really put a rocket up the fundraising exercise!

My aim had been to raise a modest £100.00 towards film for my Salisbury Plain project, but the campaign has now reached £225.00! I’ve taken the decision to keep the campaign going until midnight BST on August 7th as originally planned, but to add an extra print prize to the draw for each additional £100.00 raised.

This, I think, keeps it fair on those who originally donated at the start, and offers fresh incentive to anyone still thinking of making a donation.

Remember, you can enter the draw for as little as £3.00 and I only want people to donate if they can afford it. If you want to support my work, but can’t afford to help with a donation, you can share the ko-fi/takeagander link and help that way too. I’m deeply grateful for the moral as well as the financial support.

The winners will be able to pick any image they like on takeagander.co.uk with the exception of Guest Artist gallery.

So, once more, here’s the link if you’d like to donate and be in with a chance to win a print: ko-fi/takeagander

Thank you so very much!

Tim

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 by Tim Gander

Lost and Found (repeatedly)

Those of you who’ve been following my personal projects will be aware of Found Notes, a series of photos of found notes, lists and illustrations which my good friend David Evans has collected over the past 26 years (and counting).

If you haven’t been following it, take a look here.

Well here’s s fun turn-up for the books. Amongst David’s collection was a series of what we came to call Affirmation Cards – handwritten colour-coded cards, each with a single word on the front face (Career, Life, Love and so on) and some kind of affirmative message on the back.

When David dropped off the main batch of notes for me to photograph, he hadn’t realised one of the affirmation cards was missing. There was no way of knowing, since they weren’t indexed, numbered or anything. He only discovered one had dropped out of the set when he found it behind his desk while hunting for something else.

So this card had been lost, then found, then lost again. As I wasn’t going to see David for a while he posted it to me, but it didn’t arrive. So then we considered it lost again. That is until this morning when, some three months after he posted it, it arrived in the mail. And so this note has been lost, found, lost again, found again, and finally lost and found again.

This note is the most lost and found note of all the Found Notes. Now all I have to do is look after it until I get a chance to photograph it. I’ll just leave it on this pile of paperwork for now…

Red card with the word "CAREER" handwritten in capital letters on the front.
The most lost and found of the Found Notes
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 by Tim Gander

What Happened Here

The remains of a Henry vacuum cleaner peering out from inside a rusty metal barrel which lies on its side in an area of brambles and weeds, with a green wheelie bin on its side to the right.
A Henry vacuum cleaner is fly-tipped at the site.

I’ve settled on this as the title for my Saxonvale series because it sums up the nature of the project; a semi matter-of-fact record, with touches of humour, drama and sadness. The title hints at the disappointment that land which should have been developed decades ago was left to ruin, but perhaps I should be thankful it wasn’t or the project would never have existed.

Things are definitely winding down in terms of new pictures and the site has now been almost completely boarded out. I’m seeking a final few closing images to round out the project, but I really have to get the next stage (a book) moving.

What has struck me is the incredible timing with which I came to start the project. Early on I wasn’t sure I had a project, but once it became obvious it was happening I knew I had enough expired film to get me through about a year of shooting it. Sixteen months later and I’m down to one last roll of the original batch of film (I did find a second source, just in case it overran) and the site has been bought, boarded and awaits demolition and reconstruction.

Unless Saxonvale is about to enter another extended period of neglect, I think my timing has been incredibly serendipitous.

So while I’ll try not to bang on about it too much on my Instagram account (@takeagander) or here, do watch this space and I hope to bring occasional updates regarding the progress towards a book. When the time comes, I hope you’ll be able to support it!

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 by Tim Gander

Analogue Dialogue

Yes, I’m back to talking about film. Except this time I’m talking about me talking about film, so it’s all getting a bit meta as people like to say these days.

Getting to the point, after I had an article posted on Petapixel back in January this year, I got an email from Bill Manning at Studio C-41 asking if I’d like to do an interview with him for their podcast. The opportunity for me to talk about myself? Well of course I didn’t say no!

A brown dog holds a large stick in its mouth at the Saxonvale site in Frome, Somerset, UK
From my Saxonvale project which is shot on expired film.

Studio C-41, based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, is a fun and informative regular podcast (available on iTunes and through the C-41 website) which discusses news, developments, ideas and artists mainly, though not exclusively, involved in analogue film photography. It’s worth having a listen if you want to know what’s going on, and more especially if you want to hear hep cats like myself spouting forth on the subject.

Well rather than me writing a load of words about me talking a load of words, head over to the podcast and hear my pearls of wisdom for yourself. It is 39 minutes long, so you might want to arm yourself with a cup of tea and a packet of digestive biscuits. Here’s the link for you.

 

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 by Tim Gander

So… 2018

Having looked back at 2017 in my previous blog post, it’s time to gaze into the crystal ball, check the tea leaves and the alignment of the planets and hazard a guess at what this, my 20th year as a freelance photographer, will bring.

It’s always hard to predict. Each year brings surprises, both good and bad – mainly good thankfully, and if the last couple of years are anything to go by, I will continue to find new clients while work from others will go quieter. It’s the natural cycle of business and no longer terrifies me the way it used to.

I look forward to working with new people just as much as I enjoy undertaking repeat work for established clients and I know there will be a similar mix this year as ever.

2017 was incredibly busy, and it’ll be interesting to see if 2018 can match it, but even if the shape of the year is different I’m sure it’ll be just as much fun.

What will make 2018 quite different from previous years will be the level of personal work I hope to undertake. The Saxonvale project continues to grow and there’s a possibility it will come to fruition this year, though I have a funny feeling it will continue into next year. It partly depends on how much longer my stock of expired film will last.

A homeless man leans on the step of his caravan looking away from the camera and smiling as he smokes a cigarette.
Alby lives in a caravan on the Saxonvale site. Shot on expired B&W film.

In addition to Saxonvale I have ideas for other, possibly smaller, self-contained mini projects which I would like to pursue. One thing is certain, my personal projects will be shot on film. Getting back into shooting film has transformed my approach to personal work and I find it a great way to separate the personal from the commercial. It also informs my commercial work and keeps me fresh, so there’s no going back to digital-only now.

Whatever 2018 brings for me, I hope it brings my loyal readers, clients and friends every success in whatever they set out to achieve and I look forward to hearing from some of you over the coming months.

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 by Tim Gander

2017 In Review

In keeping with a tradition which stretches back oh, at least some years now, it’s time for me to review my year in pictures. I hope you enjoy the brief selection of photos in the gallery below.

Actually, what an incredible year it’s been! I’m not sure I’ve ever had such a busy year since I went freelance 19 years ago, so I’m looking forward to 2018 more in anticipation than trepidation.

January was a total whirlwind as the Faces of Routes project went from conception to launch in less than five weeks. The reaction from Frome people and beyond was stunning (and I don’t often use that word) and the Routes service was saved for another few years. In an ideal world, this service would be centrally funded, but for now it relies on donations and grants.

The Routes project largely came about because I was itching to do a personal project with a bigger purpose, but it also gave me the boot up the backside I needed to spur me on to undertake more personal projects generally. So it was good timing when a neighbour offered me his old medium format camera and lenses at a very reasonable price.

I’d been meddling with film again in a lighthearted way, but finding myself well-equipped with a solid film camera, and having dusted off my old 35mm film equipment, something was starting to take shape.

After a couple of false starts, out of some random whim that I can’t now remember having, I acquired a freezer drawer full of expired film of varying types and formats and the Saxonvale project was born. It doesn’t yet have its own gallery in my portfolio, but you can spot some examples in my Personal Favourites section.

So far Saxonvale has largely been an Instagram project, but I’ll add more to my website in time.

Through all this, the paid work has just kept coming; January turned out to be much busier than I would normally have expected. In fact that pattern repeated through the year, including August when my diary would normally have tumbleweed blowing across it.

Now it’s mid December and things are definitely winding down a bit for Christmas, but it’s been another good month. So I’ll leave you with some highlights from the year and take this opportunity to thank you all, clients and casual visitors alike, for all your support through 2017.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy New Year and all the very best for 2018. Oh and this will be my last post this year, see you all in January!

Portrait of a young man, smiling to camera, wearing a hoodie.
The Faces of Routes project and exhibition helped save the service.
A young, black, male engineer works on a bus's electrical circuit for the IRTE Skills Challenge 2017.
2017 was the 3rd year I'd covered the IRTE Skills Challenge.
Toby Baudains-Bourne poses with his skateboard outside the Cheese and Grain in Frome, Somerset, UK.
Part of a series of portraits of young skateboarders shot on film.
A trailer tips a consignment of grapes into the juicer at a winery in West Germany.
I managed to get a brief holiday in Germany and saw grapes being squished.
Weed seed heads garland a locked mesh gate to the Saxonvale site.
From the Saxonvale Project.
A young couple sits amongst tall grass, looking across at a horse grazing illegally
From the Saxonvale Project.
The remains of a swivel chair base, one leg snapped off and missing.
From the Saxonvale Project.
A fire burns on the open Saxonvale site as a young man strides away, looking at his mobile phone
From the Saxonvale Project.

 

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 by Tim Gander

Routes to Exhibition

Happy New Year! Ok, so 2016 might not have been your favourite year, but the bright side for me was lots of great work with wonderful clients and some personal highlights I won’t go into here.

To make sure my 2017 kicked off with a January-blues-beating personal project, I’ve launched into one which is exciting in a number of ways; I was able get it under way quickly, it’s local, it has a finite duration, has a tangible purpose and perhaps best of all it looks like it’s going to culminate in a local exhibition.

It all started when, just before Christmas, I had been trying to formulate ideas for a personal project I could launch in the New Year. I wanted something which would not only please me, but also have some kind of impact either on those involved, or on its audience.

Then I saw a tweet from Routes, the youth drop-in centre in Frome. I’d always been vaguely aware of their work with young, often vulnerable people in the town, but didn’t have much detail beyond that.

Routes tweeted that their funding is coming to an end in March 2017, after which they would have to find a new source of revenue or close. While I can’t afford the £80,000 + per year to keep them running, I felt I could help them publicise their plight so I got in touch with the centre manager Sarah Stobbart, an absolute ball of energy and a real doer.

The idea was simple; I would take portraits of those who who either use or had used Routes and the pictures could be used for press releases and grant funding applications. Sarah added the idea of holding an exhibition of the portraits somewhere in the town, and so the ball got rolling.

03+04/01/2017 Portrait for case study for Routes young person's help centre in Frome, Somerset. Portrait: Stu Mansell.
Stu
06/01/2017 Portrait for case study for Routes young person's help centre in Frome, Somerset. Portrait: Luke Bolster.
Luke
06/01/2017 Portrait for case study for Routes young person's help centre in Frome, Somerset. Portrait: Jazz Lewthwaite.
Jazz

I started shooting on January 3rd because there’s no time like the present, and with all those willing to participate we now have 13 youngsters, Sarah and her colleague Silky shot for the project.

The local press have picked up the story and one local paper is looking to publish the portraits with case studies as a series, while a local cafe/art space has agreed to host the exhibition for free for two months.

At some point I’ll create a portfolio gallery of the final images on my website, but I’ve included a couple of examples here to give you a taster of the work.

The main purpose of all this is to get funding for Routes to continue their work, so I’ll leave you with this plea from Sarah:

“If you would like to show your support and help to keep this vital service operating for young people in Frome, there are a number of ways you can help our appeal. By Texting MEND41 an amount from £1 to £10 to 70070 Or by a cheque made payable to YMCA Mendip to ‘Routes’ Drop-In Centre, 1A Palmer Street, Frome, BA11 1DS. Donate online by clicking on the BT Mydonate button at http://tinyurl.com/j9jukt9 and select Routes as your chosen project. By holding a fundraising event to help raise funds and awareness! Or become a ‘Friend’ of Routes!- Contact Sarah Stobbart (Routes Project Manager) on 01749 679553 Ext 5020 or e-mail [email protected]”

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 by Tim Gander

On The Mount

Tip: To see the image in full width, click the title of this post to lose the sidebar.

A bit of a change of direction this week; I recently started something which I hope will become a coherent series of photos journaling the real Frome town. I want to include the people and the places that get less of a look-in, which are often ignored for not being pretty enough, retro enough or chic enough for our attention. Like Standerwick, I want this series to inform the viewer without pushing an agenda. You see the pictures, you decide what they mean to you.

I don’t want this to be just another series of “petty observations” the like of which you see on Instagram or twitter every day. Certainly Frome gets its share of those with many snaps of Catherine Hill and Cheap Street, or the Independent Market. I’m looking for the slightly grittier side of Frome.

The image below is just the first instalment, a bit of a scene-setter if you like, and it shows The Mount, Keyford, Frome, which is just one of the areas I’ll be chronicling. This series will eventually get its own gallery on my website and perhaps become an exhibition somewhere in the town. Well, that would be super, but we’ll have to see about that.

In the meantime, here goes nothing, as they say…

Feltham Drive looking towards Austin Close, The Mount, Frome, Somerset

Feltham Drive looking towards Austin Close, The Mount, Frome, Somerset

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