Military memorials

Inscription on the war memorial at Rottingdean in Sussex (image 2166-6)

This week's picture subject is military memorials. It came to mind after last month's trip to Portsmouth, where such memorials to our belligerent past are particularly thick on the ground. Is there any other country whose armed forces have fought so widely and for so long ? I doubt it. What's interesting is that you don't have to be an apologist for the British Empire - and I am not - to be awed by the sheer range of these military exploits and the men (and recently women) who carried them out, in the process dying so often and so far from home. China, India, Egypt, South Africa and from Flanders fields to the Falklands - the list goes on and on. So impressive and yet also so very sad.

Portsmouth was last week's feature

Last week's picture feature came from a recent visit to Portsmouth. Since my last trip there in 2002, the city has seen big changes - the Spinnaker Tower, new apartment buildings, shops and "leisure facilities", not to mention its football team in the Premier League and this year's Cup Final. But for all the glossy new buildings, Pompey still feels, at least to an outside observer, an essentially unloveable, even unhappy place. The new shops are identikit chainstores and most of the new apartments won't sell in the recession. Local wages are low, lots of pubs are closing and there are too many angry drunks and violent-looking young men on the streets. Other places are the same, of course, but it's particularly depressing in Portsmouth because it has such a splendid history. Its parks and promenades are full of cannons and monuments to foreign conquests and the defence of the realm. Despite wartime bombing and post-war "redevelopment", it is still full of fine buildings. But like so many other English cities, Pompey's glorious and confident past cannot make up for its grotty and insecure present. And sadly so.

Spraycan art, spring snow and Brighton's West Pier have been recent picture sets

The picture set a fortnight ago took a look at spraycan artists and the use of aerosol containers to paint graffiti murals. It's a contentious subject - spraying on someone else's property is a criminal offence, yet some sprayers are praised as important artists and their work sold in commercial galleries for a small fortune. Depending on your point of view, Banksy is either a social menace or a brilliant critic of contemporary society. Graffiti, which for centuries had been a simple matter of scratching and writing on walls, was transformed by the use of spraycans, first deployed on a large scale in New York in the early 1970s. That same city now has a law (Title 10-117 of the New York Administrative Code) that bans the sale of cans to under-18s. In the UK, the Anti-Social Behaviour Act even includes powers to prosecute property owners who allow graffiti on their premises. Now that owners of Banksy-decorated walls are carefully taking them down for sale on the art market, the law is clearly in a bit of a muddle. If Leonardo had invented the spraycan, would the Mona Lisa have been given an ASBO ?

Snow in April was the feature three weeks ago, taken in Brighton on Sunday 6th. Apparently there's now a greater probability of a white Easter than a white Christmas in England, but it still comes as a bit of a shock to encounter a wintry blizzard on a spring day, when the grass is growing and the tulips are out. Maybe this is global climate change, maybe just good old English weather in capricious April (traditionally the "cruellest month"). Either way, it all makes it pretty difficult to decide what to put on in the morning.

It's five years since a huge fire consumed Brighton's lovely old West Pier. All that's left is its rusting carcass, a splendid but irretrievable ghost of what had been the finest pleasure pier in the world. The picture set four weeks ago showed the West Pier 1998-2008 - eleven images, one from each year. A decade ago the pier was empty and unused - it had closed to the public way back in 1975. But it was still intact, complete with its marvellous theatre, pavilion and kiosks. The shame is that it wasn't rescued then, when a relatively modest amount of money (certainly compared to the ludicrously overblown London Olympics 2012) could have brought it back to life. The West Pier now lies dead in the water. But what a death !

Over 50000 pictures now available

The picture library offers more than 50000 images and they can all be keyword searched from the picture search page. New or updated subjects include military memorials, Portsmouth, spraycan art, snow in springtime, Brighton's West Pier, Bournemouth, Weymouth and vans. 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 over 3000 images. Each week brings 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.

Carriage driver and partner in Stanmer Park in Sussex in May 2008 (image 2758-47)