Tim Andrews' Parkinson's Project - Over The Hill

I was contacted some time ago by a chap called Tim Andrews, explaining that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and was approaching photographers to see if they would like to photograph him for an ongoing project entitled Over The Hill.

After a while we arranged to meet and I invited him down to the Island to spend a day with me. The weather was drab and dreary and, because of this, all my plans kept changing on the journey to meet him at the boat. I tried to find a way to turn the day into something more productive and successful.

When we met we chatted for a while then off we went and I endeavoured to show Tim as much of the Island as was possible, stopping every few miles or so to stretch our legs and take photos. It was very relaxed and informal and we had a brilliant time of it, talking all the time and finding out about each other.

I think I might have said "give me a couple of weeks to get these pictures finished", but sometimes the work takes longer than expected as I try to gather the right elements to complete the piece. The photographs themselves can take a while to tell me the direction they wish to be taken. But we get there in the end.

Tim was a pleasure to be with all day and I hope that our paths may cross again someday.

Please visit Tim's blog for further reading on his Over The Hill project.
http://timandrewsoverthehill.blogspot.co.uk

 

Published work

A selection of recently published work taking the total count to 375 book covers in 23 countries.

Published work. June 2012

Recent sales from Trevillion Images has taken me over the 300 book cover mark and my work has now been sold in 20 countries.

Ghosts within the asylum

The ghosts are there.

Everywhere.
Whispering and wittering.
Chattering, chittering.
Hollering and howling.

LISTEN TO ME!

LISTEN to me!

listen to me!

My precioussss....
sss...
ss..
s.

Listen to my madness.
Listen to my thoughts.
My ghosts.
Trapped within the asylum.
With only you to listen.
 
You think you are alone in this deafening clamour until you look around and watch -and here I mean watch closely - the faces of those about and you realise that each and every one is dealing with the same internal personal discussions to a greater or lesser extent and bearing up with ease or weakness. Try, wherever possible, to open the heavy wooden doors that keep these creatures festering in the dark and let the light come in, strong and bright, as it is hard to notice a ghost within the brightness of daylight.

Watching the moon in the rear view mirror

So there I was, driving along the downs - one of the highest points on The Island - and I'm heading straight toward the most fantastic moon. The biggest, brightest I've seen in a long time. I swear you could have reached out and touched it, it was that big. I had no camera, nowhere to stop and traffic up me jacksy. When I got to the next junction I had no choice, but to turn and drive away. I watched it in my rear view as long as possible. 

Sketches, Thumbnails and Doodles

A sketch, thumbnail or doodle is often the starting point. Sometimes the idea stays on the paper as a little rectangle of lines and personal symbols, a passing thought and nothing more. Sometimes it will end up almost exactly as it began and sometimes it will change and develop as circumstances dictate. If it changes don't consider that a bad thing or a sign that it was a bad idea, it's simply a way for the creative universe to offer you a deal, a two for the price of one so to speak.

Competitions

I like to enter photographic competitions from time to time - I haven't won any yet, but that doesn't stop me trying. I think it's good to have a go, put your work out there in front of other people in the industry. It often provides a chance to try things out and who knows, one day I might win. It is due, in part, to an earlier competition with the magazine below that I took a leap of faith, quit the day job and started to be a photographer full time. So they can even change your life!


I recently entered into the Black and White Photographer of the Year 2011 competition run through Black and White Photography Magazine and was notified that I had been shortlisted and put through to the next round. I didn't manage to win (this time), but they very kindly put a selection of shortlisted entries into their December 2011 issue and each of the selected images has been given a whole page to itself!  I just can't get over how cool that is.

I wanted to try something different with my photograms. I created new images by joining several together. They are abstract in nature due to the random gathering of found objects, but I wanted to keep the aesthetic quality and suggest that these items could have existed together and worked together. There are all sorts of ingredients in these: dead insects found on windowsills, a plastic bracelet lying in a gutter, an old bottle discovered in the verge on a dog walk, broken rulers...

I've been watcing the films and stop motion animation of The Brothers Quay (pronounced Kway) recently and their work simply blows you away, it is incredibly poetic and visually amazing. (I recommend Street of Crocodiles and Institute Benjamenta as starting points).They appear to live and work in a world where everything that can be overlooked and ignored becomes important and is given life: dust, grime, seeds, screws, the broken and discarded...