All portfolio photos were taken by yours truly: John Cook (unless otherwise stated). I will add to this collection over the coming months and years. They are a very small selection taken from my portfolio blog posts (Parts 5-7). These blog posts are holding areas for ideas; numbered #1, #2, etc., they are listed with links below. However, this digital portfolio page and my physical folder are more selective (scroll down to 'Selective Portfolio'). An emerging theme is "Bringing out the strangeness and charm of the people I meet and the places I visit". Strangeness can manifest as coastal erosion, roads that disappear and our response like using deliberately beached vessels for coastal protection. Charm is found everywhere in people, places and the planet.
The selection of photos has been taken using the camera that I bought with the help of a small inheritance from Aunty Dot. On this digital portfolio version I indicate when photos were taken on my mobile phone. The mobile phone is more intimate as it is ubiquitous, people don't really notice you using it as much compared with a full on camera with a zoom. However, both allow me to make connections with the people and places on the ‘edge’.
The notes below are taken from relevant photo stories in my blog posts (specifically: Parts 1, 2, 5 & 7) . Parts that are not featured in my this Selective Portfolio are:
Part 3 (Raising a family – Camping and visits to the coast in UK and France),
Part 4 (Outsider Academic - As a Gamekeeper's Son I have travelled a long way), and
Part 6 (Lighthouses).
Comments welcome: johnnigelcook@gmail.com. On order to get you in the mood, below are two short Show Reels I knocked out with music by me.
Show reels
Show Reel #1. Graveyards for Boats and Ships. Purton visit. (Feb 2023)
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Blog Posts for John's Photo Portfolio
Part 5 - Portfolio #1 to #6
- Portfolio #1, Highlights from Part 1, new photos from the coastal edge
- Portfolio #2.1, Living under the Cotswold Edge (June to Dec 2022)
- Portfolio #2.2, Living under the Cotswold Edge: Moe's Story
- Portfolio #2.3, Living under the Cotswold Edge: Martin's Story
- Portfolio #2.4, Living under the Cotswold Edge: Spring Mist
- Portfolio #2.5, Living under the Cotswold Edge: Portraits at Painswick Beacon
Portfolio #2.6, Living under the Cotswold Edge: Carolyn's Story
- Portfolio #3.1, Tim's Story
- Portfolio #4, New portraits and pictures of characters/locations shown in Part2: London in the ’80s. Life on the edge of society
- Portfolio #5, Knaresborough through the seasons, new family homes for my Brother, Sister-in-Law, Mum, Dad, Sister
- Portfolio #6, Liminal Space
Part 7 - Graveyards for Boats and Ships
- Portfolio # 10.1, Graveyards for Boats and Ships. Purton Hulks
- Portfolio #3.1, Tim's Story
Portfolio #10.2 - Graveyards for Boats and Ships. Lydney Hulks
Portfolio #10.3 - Graveyards for Boats and Ships. 1960 Severn Railway Bridge Disaster
Portfolio #10.4 - Graveyards for Boats and Ships. Sharpness #1
Portfolio #10.5 - Graveyards for Boats and Ships. Sharpness #2
selective portfolio
My photo stories Part 1 project brief was to get hold of old photos and stories from my past (of visits to the coastal edge of the UK in the time period 1958-1976) and to then connect them to new photos and stories of these places. In Portfolio #1 I included a small selection of the new photos I gathered. Two sites are selected to feature here in my Selective Portfolio (along with a two East Coast lighthouses, also from Part 1).
Tunstall, The road that disappeared (21st July, 2002, 5 am)
The Yorkshire Post reported in March 2022 that coastal erosion at Withernsea is placing property, including homes, and lives at risk as the damage relentlessly progresses inland. I am up at 4am on Thursday to follow up a lead relating to a road that disappeared just North of Withernsea! These photos were taken at 5am onwards, I like the light at this time of day.
Happisburgh, Dave and Mable came over to check I was still alive! (15th September 2022, 12 noon)
I am on the road again for Trip 3 for my photo stories blog. This time it is Happisburgh, Mundesley, Cromer then Skegness. When I started to research this part of the Eastern coast (see Cromer blog post) I came across an article: "Warning some coastal towns and villages will have to be relocated due to erosion" in Lincolnshire Live. We get the reapearance of the management of change idea that came up in the Turnstall post, from Trip 1. Also community buildings that are movable sounds slightly nomadic. Because my research into Trips 1&2 on the East Yorkshire coast has increased my interest in coastal erosion, on Trip 3 I decided to pay a visit to Happisburgh on my way to Cromer. When I arrived it was very cloudy and later rained. I found another Road to Nowhere (my 4th), and was flat on the floor getting arty shots of it when Dave and Mable, from Birkenshaw in Yorkshire, came over to check I was still alive! Haha. They did tell me the name of their dog, which I forgot instantly. Had a good chat, they used to walk up the top of the cliffs on this now lost road. Dave was born in Leeds, just like myself. This is a beautiful spot and I will definitely revisit.
Scarborough
Flamborough Head
My School friends Roger, Tony and Timmy moved from Bradford to Camden Town in June-ish, 1980. Toby, another School friend, was already living down there. At the age of 22, on or around the 21st July 1980, I also moved to London to play in bands, write poetry and squat with friends. This was life on the edge of society for me and as such this episode of my life has Part 2 devoted to it, see: London in the 80s' / 8 episodes (+ many related posts). My old friend Halvdan Wettre took a lot of photographs at the time and so I am lucky to have a visual record from these days.
In Portfolio #4, 40 Years After: Revisiting people and sites in Camden Town that featured in my Indie 80s, life on the edge of society I add new portraits and pictures of characters/locations shown in Part 2, London in the '80s. These were collected on 2 trips to London in the second half of 2022. On the left of the grids below: 6 photos taken by Halvdan Wettre, 1 by Plume/Miranda, 1 by Susan Andrews (all in the early 80s).
I knocked out a map with old photos, as you do. Open the My Map link below, has photos associated to locations. The map is called ‘London in the 80s Indie music milieu’. This bohemian milieu was typified by a socially unconventional network of squats and housing coops, and often included those involved in Indie music. The map shows bands I was in, or that I felt a connection with like Furious Pig (I wasn't in them, but I was in bands with all other people shown); if a band member went off and did other stuff that is shown too: a sort of expanding network linked to me (i.e. yours truly John Cook)!! Link to Map: https://tinyurl.com/3ud23r5j. And, here is a link to the slides for a paper I gave on all this at the Subcultures Network International Conference (2023): https://tinyurl.com/2v9au8r9
Portfolio #2, Wotton-under-edge – Living under the Cotswold Edge
I live in Wotton-Under-Edge, literally under the edge of the Cotswolds escarpment which is a result of geological uplifting (tilting) of the surface limestone layer, exposing its broken edge. This escarpment is sometimes called the Cotswold Edge and it has the Cotswold Way, a 102-mile long-distance footpath, running along it and past my cottage. This is my physical connection with this particular type of Edge. So the evolving collection under this category makes a play on words in order to be included in this outlier section of Connections with the Edge. Wotton overlooks the Severn Valley and is a market town with a history dating back to AD 940. It has many independent shops and a strong community and cultural life. For the past five years I have organsied the monthly jazz jams at the local Under the Edge Arts centre and I go walking in the area. My daughter went to the local Secondary School Katharine Lady Berkeley. Wotton is located in Gloucestershire on the southern fringe of the Cotswolds; the latter was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1966. Being on the 'edge' and 'fringe' of things makes Wotton very interesting. I have interpreted the area range liberally, so I include places under 60 minutes drive of Wotton-under-edge like Sharpness, Westonbirt, Bristol, Stancombe, etc.
(mobile phone)
(mobile phone)
People (from various portfolios)
Strangeness and charm (from various portfolios)
Gigs (mainly in Bristol, always 30 minutes from Wotton Under Edge)
Alex Merritt (Sony A7 IV)
Daniel Karlsson Trio (Sony A7 IV)
Various (mobile phone)
Soundcheck (mobile top-camera bottom)
My Brother Ian and his wife Kath moved to beautiful Knaresborough many years ago. Mum and Dad followed and finally Julie my Sister moved there. After my trips to the coast for Part 1 of the photo stories blog I would return to Knaresborough to stay with Mum. It became the new point of origin for connections with the edge. A place of many happy family gatherings but of sad departures from this mortal coil by Dad and my Brother. Marigold next to the River Nidd is Mum's favorite cafe. The pictures of us below visiting there are very special to me. The River Nidd is the destination point for family ashes. All very personal.
This has become a major direction for me. For the story so far, see the following posts: https://connectionswiththeedge.com/category/part-7-graveyards-for-boats-and-ships/. Trips are planned to Brittany with Billy for Boat Cemeteries, Bullo Wharf towards Newnham, Sharpness (again), Falmouth, Hastings.
On Thursday 9th February I visited Purton Ships’ Graveyard for the first time. This is a collection of some 86 deliberately beached vessels; done to protect the Sheerness canal. Show Reel #1. Graveyards for Boats and Ships. Purton visit. (Feb 2023).
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Went rummaging in another ships’ graveyard today (2nd March, 2023)! Been looking for hulks, not the Marvel type, near the entrance to the Lydney Canal on the River Severn. In 1954 various redundant barges were put into position on the River Severn front to prevent further erosion at the entrance to Lydney Canal. Today this collection has the skeletal remains of 24 Hulks. The area is unusual, with reeds, mud flats, alien-like landscapes, views down the River Severn valley, hulks and the proximity of many industrial areas; indeed I parked next to a large metal recycling plant. The Esprit below looks like it is nearing the end of its working life! However, the harbour is currently getting an upgrade with a £2.1 million regeneration, funded by the Coastal Community Fund.
Portfolio #10.3 Severn Railway Bridge Disaster
On my trip to photograph the Purton Hulks (Thursday 9th February, 2023) I used my zoom lens to photograph hulks visible at low tide in the middle of the River Severn. A month or so later, a friend identified them for me as being what remains from the Severn Railway Bridge Disaster. After rescue attempts were exhausted, on 30th October the army used explosives to sink the ships to prevent any danger of them moving with the coming high tide. Consequently, these hulks can be seen at low tide. The Severn Railway Bridge was finally demolished in 1967. There is a memorial to the Severn Rail Bridge disaster at Lydney harbour to those lost in the disaster.
Portfolio #10.4 & Sharpness #10.4
21st August 2022. I had my tripod set up and was out taking photos at Sharpness; an English port in Gloucestershire, one of the most inland in Britain, and which is on the beautiful Severn Estuary 20 minutes drive from where I live. Tim came up and asked me what I was photoing. Anyway, as our chat went on I mentioned I was a Gamekeeper's son. Tim was a Gamekeeper for over 40 years. See Tim's Story.
As I drove around the area, much of it still commercially active, I saw human made colours in the environment that reminded me of a gentler version of Martin Parr's work.
