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The Maypole

By |2020-01-29T14:58:08+00:00June 25th, 2012|Categories: Portfolio Galleries|Tags: , , , , , , , |


THE MAYPOLE | Photographs set around a Maypole located in the North Yorkshire village of Slingsby.

Maypoles were traced to prehistoric times when the Tree Spirit was worshipped (Sir James George Frazer in his book ‘The Golden Bough‘). People danced around the poles but did not plait them.

Today, the tradition is still observed in some parts of Europe and among European communities in North America.

Maypole History

The Maypole tradition hasn’t always met with approval.

The Long Parliament’s ordinance of 1644 described maypoles as “a Heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickedness.”

When Charles II took the throne in 1660 Maypole dancing came back after the crackdown during the Cromwell era.

Slingsby’s maypole history goes back a great many years. The current Slingsby Maypole was erected in 1993. It is used each year for village May Day celebrations attracting big crowds.

A YouTube video of the 1985 Maypole raising can be found on the Slingsby village website.

Sea, Sky, Sand and Street

By |2020-03-10T12:39:19+00:00July 14th, 2011|Categories: Featured Gallery, Photobook, Portfolio Galleries|Tags: , , , , , , , , |


Sea, Sky, Sand and Street | Landscape and Street Photography Book

Originally created as a PDF book, for an online photo project, this gallery features an extended gallery of 115 images shot for the Sea, Sky, Sand and Street iPhone photography book released in the summer of 2011.

This extended gallery contains photographs not featured in the book, edited down from the 400 images taken for the project using an iPhone. The images are shown in the order they were shot. Using landscape, still-life and street photography, Sea, Sky, Sand and Street features a variety of rural, urban and coastal locations along the north Norfolk coast.

A big influence on the project was John Tordai’s excellent 1993 photography book that documented the northern English county of Northumberland.

iPhone Photography

The project was really the first true test of mobile photography as a photographer. It confirmed to me that mobile photography had a future and was a useful tool for photographers. It also captured quite brilliantly, although I didn’t realise it at the time, a specific period of my life.

Places change and we change too. Often quicker than we’d like to think. I will return to Norfolk at some point, but it won’t ever be quite the same as before.

Featured Photography Page

A detailed background account of the ‘Sea, Sky, Sand and Street’ photography and project can be found HERE

Two Books

The photography was used in two books. The first was a PDF photo book for the Solo Photo Book Month project in 2011. Participants had to shoot, edit and design a PDF photo book in 31 days. Sand, Sky, Sea and Street was the final book I produced for the Solo Photo Book Month project.

Sadly the popular bookmaking project closed in 2011 due to rising running costs. The PDF book would lead onto the 2011 print version with the slightly altered title of Sea, Sky, Sand and Street.

The PDF books from the Solo Photo Book Month projects are located HERE.

The Printed Book

The 80 page print version ‘Sea, Sky, Sand and Street’ book featuring 70 black and white landscape, documentary and still life photographs can be purchased from Blurb HERE.

Sea, Sky, Sand and Street Prints

A collection of 25 images, taken from the ‘Sea, Sky, Sand and Street’ book, are available to buy as professional quality prints via the Richard Flint Photography Redbubble store.

Ready to display easily, the prints are available as 4×4″ (10×10 cm) and 6×6″ (15×15 cm) acrylic blocks. Also available are professionally printed watercolour textured 4ply artboards in a variety of sizes from 6×6 (15.2×15.2 cm) to 10×10 (25.4 x 25.4 cm).

Visit the Sea, Sky, Sand and Street print collection HERE

The Norfolk Project

By |2020-01-29T14:51:00+00:00May 31st, 2011|Categories: Featured Gallery, Portfolio Galleries|Tags: , , , , , , , |


THE NORFOLK PROJECT | Landscape and Documentary Photography

Part documentary and part landscape, the Norfolk Project is a long term project documenting the social, historical and geographic aspects of the English county of Norfolk. The photography started with film cameras. 35mm was the main format with Nikon F3, F4 and F5 cameras doing most of the work. Medium format and especially 6×6 was added later. Digital was added in 2007.

Film stock was a mix of Ilford FP4 and HP5. Some Kodak TMAX 400 was used as well.

Combining a variety of photography from landscape to street, I wanted the imagery to cover a broader spectrum of topics as possible and I wanted to document aspects away from the normal, more obvious seaside holiday destination. Norfolk has so much more than that.

Project Beginnings

Originally I’d planned for the documentary and landscape project to last around five years. I then realised that the project could run over a much longer time frame. The aim was to develop something that I could return to again and again. Over the years it has grown into a large collection of images covering a broad range of subject matter.

Some photographs were shot prior to 2001 with early photography going back to 1998. These images have also been added into the project. The photographs of the memorials on the clifftop at Hunstanton are among those early images. The idea for a long term project really started from those images.

Recent Photography

The most recent project images were shot in September 2016 during a week-long visit to the county and those final few images can be found in the gallery starting with the couple on the windswept beach.

A place I would like to document further is the pilgrimage village of Walsingham. It’s described as ‘England’s Nazareth’, where thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit each year and it’s a remarkably tranquil place even if you aren’t particularly religious. Most would describe it as spiritual.

The notion of a pilgrimage may seem like something out of the medieval era to many. However, a steady stream of the faithful, from all over the UK and the world, come and visit the Norfolk village every year. Sadly I’ve only ever come across one pilgrimage and that was way back in the 1980s.

The Norfolk Project is currently on hold but it will return at a later date.

Photography Influence

The photography book ‘Photographer’s Britain – Northumberland’ by John Tordai was a huge influence. Released in 1993, Tordai’s book was an impressive blend of black & white documentary and landscape photography. The images explored the rich landscape and history of the English county of Northumberland.

Photography Book

A photography book of 6×6 images is in the early stages of development and is planned for release in 2020. More details can be found HERE

Featured Photography Page

A dedicated page for the Norfolk Project that provides a detailed account of the background behind the photography can be found HERE

Photography Prints

If you would like to purchase a print then the Richard Flint Photography RedBubble store has a wide range of images available.

Framed prints, canvas prints, art boards, metal prints and acrylic block plus lots more can be found on the RedBubble store HERE.

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