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Norfolk nagatives? I don’t think so.

Finally got new chemicals to develop my Norfolk pics.

Some things went wrong: the exposure and weird vignetting is less problematic than the mottled effect down the sides of the negatives – not sure if this was a result of the expired film stock, bad chemicals, residues on my equipment, hard water, etc, etc…will take some figuring out as per usual. Still, I enjoyed these snaps.

We weren’t sure about visiting North Norfolk, had never been and wanted to see. We found a superb semi-wild campsite, Barley Fields, that was quite the perfect escape from bustling London. We also came across top-notch fish and chips shops, searched for fossils on the loooong beach at Runting, found scrumptious local honey, characterful towns like Sheringham, and every kind of weather. Something we also noticed – North Norfolk is an incredibly neat and tidy part of the country – the towns seem manicured, shops are spotless, public gardens are ship shape, lawns and verges are neatly mowed and there is no litter. Simple things make a big difference.

Anyway, the black-and-whites are Ilford Ortho Plus run through a battered Minolta Autocord and the colour is Fuji C200 through a Nikon FE with Ais lenses (processed at Aperture in London).

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All Quiet On The Western Front

The latest film from Edward Berger, based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque, is a stunning achievement. The world this cast and crew have created is so incredibly immediate it threatens to pull you into the sludge with it. Volker Bertelmann’s visceral score is sublime. Stories like this are essential counterpoint to other much-loved films that offer up death and destruction simply as entertainment.

“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”

– Erich Maria Remarque

I have subsequently been drawn back to the work of Wilfred Owen, a British poet who was killed in action, aged twenty-five, just one week before the armistice was declared ending World War I…his imagery is that much more harrowing:

Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

(Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”)

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365 Days…Go!

“I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: Entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you’re able to entertain people, you’re doing a good thing.”

– Stan Lee