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Wrecked cars |
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A drunken Chinaman drove down our street in the early hours of the morning one day last week and lost control, crashing into four cars and writing off three of them. One, unfortunately, was ours. So there can be only one possible subject for the picture feature this week. It just has to be wrecked cars. This might not be in the best of Christmas spirits, but then we can be excused for not exactly feeling very "Ho ! Ho ! Ho !" this year. At least drinking and driving is a seasonal subject. Sadly. I bet the three wise men were comprehensively insured. |
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Last week's pictures were about crude graffiti |
| Crude graffiti was the subject of last week's picture set. Marvellous word, "crude" - you immediately know what to expect with it. It's the language of the playground, but generally with added swear words. The insults are basic and the humour often of the toilet kind, but the best kind of crudity is hardly ever really nasty and unpleasant. It's just, well, crude. The pictures in this set were taken in Brighton and London between 2001 and 2006. You might also be interested in seeing two other related sets - the first on rude and offensive graffiti and the second on the F word. |
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Recent pictures of the week |
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The weather for most of December has been pretty rough, so it seemed appropriate that the picture feature a fortnight ago should have been about some Brighton storms in recent years. Nothing as dramatic as the tornado that hit Kensal Rise (of all places) earlier in the month, but the seas and winds on the South Coast can be pretty spectacular. A combination of gale and high tide tends to cause the most damage, as in December 2002 when the central section of the old West Pier collapsed into the sea and hundreds of people turned up on the beach to collect the bits. Global warming is going to increase the severity of winter weather in Brighton and everywhere else in Britain, so beach huts may not be the best of long term investments. The pictures three weeks ago featured t-shirts. Ubiquitous and humble garments, t-shirts are the fast food of the fashion business and sell in their millions. They are also, it may be surprising to learn, guilty of contributing to both global warming and the exploitation of the developing world. The manufacture, distribution and final disposal of the average t-shirt consumes 1.5g of fossil fuel, emits 4kg of carbon dioxide and sends 450g of waste to landfill. Over its typical lifespan, it uses up 65 megajoules of energy in washing, ironing and drying. Then, in economic terms, the Chinese workers who make our t-shirts get paid just 43 pence a day, while shops in the UK can charge £10 for each one. You see some pretty awful stuff printed on t-shirts, but the things themselves, it seems, are even worse. Four weeks ago the pictures were about beards. When I was a little boy and my mum took me out in the car with another child, she used to play a game with us that was based on beards. It was very simple. Looking out of the car windows, the first child to spot a bearded man would have to shout out "Beaver !". My mother would check to verify the sighting and the successful spotter got a sweet. A false claim meant the other child got the sweet. It wouldn't work nowadays, of course, and not least because of the Beaver aspect of it. Anyway, there are a lot more beards out there nowadays and you'd quickly run out of sweets. Sikhs have been in the news recently because many younger male Sikhs are shaving off their traditionally long beards in order to fit in more easily to Western society. That's a shame. Beavers of the world, fight back against the tyranny of Western conformism ! |
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About this site and picture library |
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There are now over 48000 images in the library and they can all be keyword searched from the picture search page. New or updated subjects include wrecked cars, graffiti, storms, t-shirts, beards, lidos and clocks. The site has several ways to help make relevant and fruitful searches, including index pages for both subjects and events & places. There is also a useful search guide and information page. A good showcase of the type and range of photography available can be explored in the pictures of the week series. Published on the site since December 2001, this now totals more than 2400 images. Every week there is a set of ten pictures about a particular place, event or theme. Almost all the library's pictures are available for personal or commercial reproduction. Digital files can be delivered by email or CD, prices start from as little as £8 and there is further information on the prices and terms & conditions pages. You can also contact David Gray for quotations and availability for new photography commissions. |
