JUNE 2023 · ROAM

Bristol near the water

Bristol Harbourside

The 24mm lens changes what you include. You're close to the thing. You're in the frame more than you would be with longer glass. The floating harbour on this walk was less the water than what sits at the edges of it — the surfaces that face it and the structures that haven't been cleared away.

The underside of a bridge: rust-stained concrete and geometric shadow patterns cast by the supporting structure. A derelict wooden structure covered entirely in spray paint, wildflowers growing from the base up around it. The paint is layered — not graffiti in sequence but graffiti accumulated, colours over colours, the original surface somewhere underneath everything else.

Modern glass-fronted building beside orange brick structure on Bristol waterfront — The back of things: wall, pipe, bracket, paint

— Close to the thing

On one wall: tags, and below them, wild pink flowers growing at the concrete base. The flowers are not planted. They found a gap and grew through it. The corrugated metal fence nearby has been painted multicolour and below that fence the same flowers are back.

The flowers are not planted — they found a gap and grew through it.
Bristol waterfront — June 2023

Underside of bridge showing rust-stained concrete and geometric shadow patterns — Geometric shadow patterns, rust-stained concrete

— What grows through

The ornate cast iron gate at the end of a path casts shadows in the sun that are as structured as the gate itself — the geometric pattern doubled on the ground.

Derelict wooden structure covered in colorful spray paint surrounded by wildflowers — Graffiti accumulated, not in sequence

Concrete wall with layers of graffiti tags and wild pink flowers growing at base — Tags above, pink flowers below

— The gate

Victorian terraced housing looks down from the slope above. From that elevation the harbour looks composed. From the path along the water's edge, what you get is the back of things: the wall, the pipe, the bracket, the paint, the flower in the crack.

Ornate black metal gate casting geometric shadows in bright natural light — The pattern doubled on the ground

Full series — Bristol near the water 7 photographs

Modern glass-fronted building beside orange brick structure on Bristol waterfront

Colorful Victorian terraced houses overlooking weathered brick structure with graffiti

Underside of bridge showing rust-stained concrete and geometric shadow patterns

Derelict wooden structure covered in colorful spray paint surrounded by wildflowers

Concrete wall with layers of graffiti tags and wild pink flowers growing at base

Vibrant multicolored graffiti on corrugated metal fence with flowering plants below

Ornate black metal gate casting geometric shadows in bright natural light

Roam Bristol near the water

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