Since mid September 2017 I have been in Tanzania, working as the in country photographer for the NGO Raleigh International. After an incredible journey, I recently arrived back in the UK, and have been busy editing the work I made there. I am in the process of updating my website and hope to have the new work online soon.
As of the 13th of September I will be out of the country until January 23rd 2018. For the following months I will be working in Tanzania as the expedition photographer for Raleigh International. Established in 1984, Raleigh is a sustainable development charity that works in remote, rural areas to improve access to safe water and sanitation, build community resilience, to sustainably manage natural resources and to protect vulnerable environments.
For the coming months communication may be limited but please contact me via my everyday email: paulwalsh1977@yahoo.com
You can follow my journey on the Raleigh International blog or via my Facebook and Instagram pages found on my website. See you in 2018….
This week I was delighted to discover the work of photographer Alexandra Huddleston. For a number of years I have wanted to walk the 88 temple Pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku in Japan, so I was excited to discover a photographer who had done it. In 2010 Huddleston walked the entire 800 miles as a pilgrim. To complete the trail pilgrims worship at each of the 88 temples following a route that loosely follows the 9th-century Buddhist saint Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi). This was the second pilgrimage for the photographer (after the Camino de Santiago). The work, which was published as a book called East or West: A Walking Journey Along Shikoku’s 88 Temple Pilgrimage, includes a series of journal entries that account for some of the tribulations as well as the joys of the experience.
To discover more of Alexandra Huddlestons work you can visit her website here and you can purchase the book here.
Ordinarily I come across photographers that use walking as a means of making work, so it was exciting to discover a series about those that actually make the paths where people walk. Scottish Path-builders is by Glasgow based photographer Robert Andrew Mercer, and documents the building of rural pathways in the scottish mountains.
I briefly got the chance to talk to Robert about his project….
“I have been working with these guys for around 5 years, I also help them to build the paths. I get to see and document them from an inside point of view, and they’ve accepted me as one of their own. We live in remote places as a team, and I photograph them during and after working hours. I’ve made a huge body of work with them, and it all revolves around the subject of making paths for people to walk safely – with a philosophy of protecting the fragile ecosystems of mountain country in Scotland. It’s been a difficult project in some respects, but in many respects it’s been a rewarding one. Perhaps a lifelong project…”
I cant wait to see more of the work, but in the meantime you can visit Roberts website here.
In 2015 the MAP6 photography collective made a piece of work about the country that lies at the geographical heart of the European Union, Lithuania. Over 6 days 6 photographers set out to explore its transformation from communism to capitalism, and how it was coping with its new found Eurozone identity. For the Lithuanian Project, I worked on the series Bokštas 25 (Tower 25) where I walked around the capitals tallest building. As I walked I photographed those I met and made landscapes where I would somehow include the tower within the frame. The work was eventually exhibited in a number of locations and was made into a self published book. After recently revisiting the work however, I have found some images that never made it into the final edit, which I am sharing here.
A recent discovery of mine is the wonderful A Road Through Shore Pine, by Robert Adams. The work was made in Nehalem Bay State Park, Oregon, in the fall of 2013. Now realised in a book of 18 medium format prints, the series traces a contemplative journey, first by automobile, then by foot, along an isolated, tree-bordered road to the sea. The passage takes on the quality of metaphor, suggestive of life’s most meaningful journeys, especially its final ones.
Adams writes, “The road is one that my family traveled often and fondly. Many of its members are gone now, and Kerstin and I visit the road for the example of the trees.” Adams was said to have stored this work in an archival print box on which he inscribed in pencil a line from the journal of the Greek poet George Seferis, “A marvelous road, enough to make you weep; pine trees, pine trees…”
Earlier this year, I visited Milton Keynes with 7 other photographers from the MAP6 collective. Over 72 hours we made the Milton Keynes project, which will be exhibited for a second time in Milton Keynes soon. The work I made was called Autopia, and its now live on my website here.
Myself and Mitch being interview for the opening of the MK calling show, at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes. The show is on until the 27 May 2017.
Thursday & Friday 12 – 8pm
Saturday 11am – 8pm
Admission Free
Collaboration is at the the heart of the MAP6 collective, and we are constantly trying to find ways in which we can further this practice. For the show at the MK Gallery, we decided to edit and exhibit the work as a whole, rather than as individual projects. It was interesting to see how images made by 8 individual photographers worked together, printed and sized differently. We hope to push this further with coming projects, as well as collaborate with other photographers, designers and curators.
We had a brilliant time at the opening night of the Milton Keynes Project. The MK Gallery was packed and everybody seemed fascinated with the work. Thank you to everybody that came to see the work, which will be on show for a further 5 weeks.
PHOTOWALK 