View allAll Photos Tagged Ravilious,
Eric Ravilious, 1903 - 1942, Artist, lived here 1931 to 1935. 48 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London W6.
Eric Ravilious was an official war artist in World War II and received a commission as a Captain in the Royal Marines. He was killed on 2 September 1942 at the age of 39 while accompanying a Royal Air Force air sea rescue mission off Iceland that failed to return to its base.
Park Hill Farm, Hales, Shropshire. November 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Pat Pimlott was kind enough to allow me to visit and photograph on their farm near Loggerheads. Park Hill produce 'happy meat', beef and pork which they take to sell at markets in and around Staffordshire under their own brand. With award winning sausages and an approach that prioritises animal welfare, they produce great tasting meat with a concentration on the ecology and welfare of their historic farm. Pat also welcomes many schools by arrangement, giving young people an insight into farming life and the reality of where meat comes from.
I spent a few hours wandering their land, investigating the hundred year old barn, the jittery young cattle, the curious pigs and the landscape itself. I was particularly interested in the old which has been used since around 1900 and today houses the adult cattle through the worst of our winter weather. It was a milking shed when Pat's father ran it after the war, and I was fascinated with the details left behind from that era. I do plan to return to Park Hill Farm in the early Spring, hopefully to catch them working in the fields with the animals and also to get some more detail shots in the old barn, but with a tripod this time so that I can do it justice. A wonderful day, and my thanks go to Pat for allowing me to be there and spending so much time talking me through their current practices and past histories.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
From the HERE | Uncovering North Devon exhibition about the Beaford Archive, featuring photographs from James Ravilious and Roger Deakins, at The Burton, Bideford.
The Higgins is a combined art gallery and museum based round the home of Charles Higgins, a successful local brewer, whose son Cecil set up the museum to house his collection of ceramics and glass and bequeathed the site to the town. It has a great number of Edward Bawden’s linocuts, including this one, Ives Farm (1958). The farm was behind Bawden's home at Great Bardfield in Essex. Bawden was born in 1903, which must have been a fortuitous year for artists, as it was the same year as Graham Sutherland, Ceri Richards, John Piper, Barbara Hepworth and Eric Ravilious.
Classic Sea-View room #118 at the refurbished Midland Hotel, Morecambe.
Designed in Streamline Moderne style by architect Oliver Hill, with sculptures by Eric Gill, the hotel was built by the London Midland & Scottish Railway and opened in 1933. It finally closed in 1998 and lay derelict until it was restored in 2006-2008 and reopened as a hotel again.
Hotel. 1932-3 by Oliver Hill. Concrete and rendered brickwork, painted white. Curved plan, with convex side facing west towards the sea. 3 storeys. Windows are steel-framed casements with rendered surrounds. Above each storey are projecting horizontal bands. The entrance front has a rounded left-hand (south) corner, and a convex central staircase projection rising above roof level. This projection has a tall window of steel casements above the doorway, divided into 3 by mullions, both of which are capped by sea horses, painted red, which were carved by Eric Gill. Projecting at the right is a single-storey cafe of circular plan, now known as the Ravilious Restaurant. The west side has a single-storey projecting sun lounge, which is an addition, its windows replaced in PVC-coated steel. Between the solid centre and ends of the facade the 1st and 2nd floors have their walls recessed to form balconies. Interior: above the cantilevered circular open-well staircase is a ceiling panel carved in low relief by Eric Gill and painted by Denis Tegetmeier. They were also responsible for the pictorial map of north-west England in what was originally the children's room at the south end of the building. Also in this room is Eric Gill's Portland stone panel, originally in the lounge, carved in low relief with a representation of Odysseus and Nausicaa. It was moved to its present position when internal walls were demolished during the 1970s. The cafe walls were originally painted with frescoes by Eric Ravilious, representing morning and evening in an idyllic seascape setting. These deteriorated rapidly because the plaster and paint used were incompatible and were obliterated within 2 years of completion, but were repainted in the late 1980s using photographic evidence. EH Listing
Leek Livestock Auction, Leek, Staffordshire. October 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
My second shoot for The Rural Eye archive project, and the staff and customers at Leek were really getting used to my presence and the idea that I am 'on their side' so to speak.
I had a cuppa and a long chat with Bruce Daniel, one of the senior auctioneers about the work. Bruce told me about how Leek is the last livestock market in all of Staffordshire, as my research had suggested. In fact there used by many, one every 12 miles at least, ensuring that no farmer had to walk his cattle more than 6 miles to market. There was a livestock auction in my own town of Newcastle-under-Lyme until 1994, but in the last few decades they have closed with farmers now having to drive their cattle to Leek or other auctions over the county borders.
Today I found myself really engaged with the animals, especially the sheep who are fascinated by the camera pointing at them. I do find something rather surreal about the sheep, of course their situation of being sold for food or breeding is something they are unaware of, but they always carry a worried look that as a human I can't help but translate anthropomorphically. As an ardent meat eater, I feel that I am gaining an understanding of the industry that feeds me, and I am not seeing anything negative at all, just people doing their best to raise their herds and flocks, to try and make a living in a hard and tough industry and economic climate.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Recent photobook acquisition.
It is interesting to have the contextual text rather than "just" the photographs, well worth reading.
2000, first Edition First printing.
There is a reprint from 2008 by Bardwell Press and a 2001 re-print by Devon.
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. November 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
A second, and really engaging visit to Market Drayton livestock auction. Being the second week in a row, I've now been seen or spoken to by a large percentage of their regular customers which is helping to spread the word about what I'm doing and why. The staff at Market Drayton have been wonderful and today they were asking me what I want to photograph, answering my questions about local farmers, goat farms, events and more, even coming up to me to let me know there's someone I should meet.
Today was very much about the people, with me asking to make formalised portraits of those I talked to or found visually interesting. These are such a stoic and friendly group of people who I am gaining a huge respect for through this project.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
The main lobby and bar, originally the hotel's restaurant. The rug is a reproduction of the original design by Marion Dorn.
Designed in Streamline Moderne style by architect Oliver Hill, with sculptures by Eric Gill, the hotel was built by the London Midland & Scottish Railway and opened in 1933. It finally closed in 1998 and lay derelict until it was restored in 2006-2008 and reopened as a hotel again.
Dairy Cottage Farm, Apedale, Staffordshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Dairy Cottage, despite the name, is a large beef farm which also produces feed (silage and haylage) for their own cattle and for sale to other local farms. With a mixture of modern and very old building as well as some antique farm machinery, this was a wonderful place to spend a day and the family really made me feel welcome and were happy to take part in The Rural Eye project.
The weather was very poor on this day and all the cattle were of course in for the winter, but I will be returning in the next season to photograph again and catch the farm under different conditions.
Many thanks to Tracey, Royston and Tom Pepper.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Another engaging trip to Market Drayton, albeit on a very cold day. I took a large number of prints from the other visits up with me and gave them to Bob Oakes and the staff as a thank you for their help. It was nice to see him take them around and show them to people who were featured and I will need to ask him to put some names to those faces in a future visit.
I was planning to leave the cattle out for the most part, and so I concentrated on the people and again with a mixture of formalised portraits and reportage. There is something very beautiful about the background interiors at this site, particularly in black and white, the tonal values seem to all compliment the people and their own clothing too. I did however visit the back of the building and photograph some of the animals as it was so cold that I wanted to get that across. I also photographed at the very back where I hadn't previously realised that there was an area for washing out trailers and cleaning everything off, presumably for disease control rather than pure aesthetics.
Each trip to Market Drayton Auctions leaves me inspired to keep going and gives me the belief that there are always more ways to show, to present and to make photographs, while all the time giving me such a rich subject matter in a welcoming environment.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
The English Winter Fair 2012, Staffordshire County Showground, Stafford, Staffordshire. 18th November 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Simon Wragg, press officer for The English Winter Fair, supplied me with a press pass for this event and I am very grateful to him for that.
This was a huge event including the tasting of cooked food, a carcass hang, all manner of cattle and a huge show ring where animals were presented at their best for prizes. I had never been to such an event before and it was great to see many familiar faces there, people I have met at Leek and Market Drayton livestock auctions on previous shoots. While I was aware of the 'showing' of cattle, in a similar vein to a dog show really, I was still surprised to see young people brushing and even blow-drying their prize cattle, spraying them with glitter and taking a real pride in their animals.
This was a coming together of hundreds of local producers, as well as some farmers from around the country, even from Scotland. There was a festival atmosphere and again the social aspect was very evident. I am now going to pursue more such events for the archive, including ones in Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and possibly even further afield if the opportunity presents.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Dairy Cottage Farm, Apedale, Staffordshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Dairy Cottage, despite the name, is a large beef farm which also produces feed (silage and haylage) for their own cattle and for sale to other local farms. With a mixture of modern and very old building as well as some antique farm machinery, this was a wonderful place to spend a day and the family really made me feel welcome and were happy to take part in The Rural Eye project.
The weather was very poor on this day and all the cattle were of course in for the winter, but I will be returning in the next season to photograph again and catch the farm under different conditions.
Many thanks to Tracey, Royston and Tom Pepper.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Eric William Ravilious was a British painter, designer, book illustrator, war artist, and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs,
Park Hill Farm, Hales, Shropshire. November 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Pat Pimlott was kind enough to allow me to visit and photograph on their farm near Loggerheads. Park Hill produce 'happy meat', beef and pork which they take to sell at markets in and around Staffordshire under their own brand. With award winning sausages and an approach that prioritises animal welfare, they produce great tasting meat with a concentration on the ecology and welfare of their historic farm. Pat also welcomes many schools by arrangement, giving young people an insight into farming life and the reality of where meat comes from.
I spent a few hours wandering their land, investigating the hundred year old barn, the jittery young cattle, the curious pigs and the landscape itself. I was particularly interested in the old which has been used since around 1900 and today houses the adult cattle through the worst of our winter weather. It was a milking shed when Pat's father ran it after the war, and I was fascinated with the details left behind from that era. I do plan to return to Park Hill Farm in the early Spring, hopefully to catch them working in the fields with the animals and also to get some more detail shots in the old barn, but with a tripod this time so that I can do it justice. A wonderful day, and my thanks go to Pat for allowing me to be there and spending so much time talking me through their current practices and past histories.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Park Hill Farm, Hales, Shropshire. November 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Pat Pimlott was kind enough to allow me to visit and photograph on their farm near Loggerheads. Park Hill produce 'happy meat', beef and pork which they take to sell at markets in and around Staffordshire under their own brand. With award winning sausages and an approach that prioritises animal welfare, they produce great tasting meat with a concentration on the ecology and welfare of their historic farm. Pat also welcomes many schools by arrangement, giving young people an insight into farming life and the reality of where meat comes from.
I spent a few hours wandering their land, investigating the hundred year old barn, the jittery young cattle, the curious pigs and the landscape itself. I was particularly interested in the old which has been used since around 1900 and today houses the adult cattle through the worst of our winter weather. It was a milking shed when Pat's father ran it after the war, and I was fascinated with the details left behind from that era. I do plan to return to Park Hill Farm in the early Spring, hopefully to catch them working in the fields with the animals and also to get some more detail shots in the old barn, but with a tripod this time so that I can do it justice. A wonderful day, and my thanks go to Pat for allowing me to be there and spending so much time talking me through their current practices and past histories.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Farmstock or Cockstock, a weekend camping and enjoying farm life (private event and location), Cheshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Boys only, surviving at camp in the depths of winter. Actually a wonderful weekend with great people, driving tractors, getting stuck, building fires, shootings guns and going to the toilet in the great outdoors. An annual farm based experience weekend for a select group of guys.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. October 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
The Rural Eye archive project was designed to give me the opportunity to engage with a very traditional documentary practice and to be able to get out and shoot as often as I could. With 2 shoots done at Leek Auctions, I realised that Market Drayton's own livestock auction was the same distance from home in the opposite direction, and so it seems a very logical next step to go there and move the project forward.
Arriving at Market Drayton Market, I had my usual walk around the whole site, something that I always do when possible to kind of feel the place out and get an idea of the function of the site. I then visited the office and spoke directly to Mark Jones, one of the auctioneers, just to explain what I am doing and why. Mark really understood the nature of the project and was happy for me to get on the camera out and do whatever I needed.
I have to say that I was immediately welcomed in a way that was surprising and heart warming. The farmers at this site were interested in what I was doing in a positive way, and while I was still often asked whether I was 'with animal rights or not', it was not a problem at all, in fact it just gave me that window of opportunity to talk to people and explain my motivations.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
The great Eric Ravilious mural, “Day and Night” has been partially recreated with some difficulty in the absence of colour photographs of the original. The compositions have been modified to allow for repositioined doorways and the execution lacks the Ravilious finesse and precision. It has the chalky look of Paul Nash rather than the chromatic subtlety of Ravilious.
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Another engaging trip to Market Drayton, albeit on a very cold day. I took a large number of prints from the other visits up with me and gave them to Bob Oakes and the staff as a thank you for their help. It was nice to see him take them around and show them to people who were featured and I will need to ask him to put some names to those faces in a future visit.
I was planning to leave the cattle out for the most part, and so I concentrated on the people and again with a mixture of formalised portraits and reportage. There is something very beautiful about the background interiors at this site, particularly in black and white, the tonal values seem to all compliment the people and their own clothing too. I did however visit the back of the building and photograph some of the animals as it was so cold that I wanted to get that across. I also photographed at the very back where I hadn't previously realised that there was an area for washing out trailers and cleaning everything off, presumably for disease control rather than pure aesthetics.
Each trip to Market Drayton Auctions leaves me inspired to keep going and gives me the belief that there are always more ways to show, to present and to make photographs, while all the time giving me such a rich subject matter in a welcoming environment.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Leek Livestock Auction, Leek, Staffordshire. October 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
My second shoot for The Rural Eye archive project, and the staff and customers at Leek were really getting used to my presence and the idea that I am 'on their side' so to speak.
I had a cuppa and a long chat with Bruce Daniel, one of the senior auctioneers about the work. Bruce told me about how Leek is the last livestock market in all of Staffordshire, as my research had suggested. In fact there used by many, one every 12 miles at least, ensuring that no farmer had to walk his cattle more than 6 miles to market. There was a livestock auction in my own town of Newcastle-under-Lyme until 1994, but in the last few decades they have closed with farmers now having to drive their cattle to Leek or other auctions over the county borders.
Today I found myself really engaged with the animals, especially the sheep who are fascinated by the camera pointing at them. I do find something rather surreal about the sheep, of course their situation of being sold for food or breeding is something they are unaware of, but they always carry a worried look that as a human I can't help but translate anthropomorphically. As an ardent meat eater, I feel that I am gaining an understanding of the industry that feeds me, and I am not seeing anything negative at all, just people doing their best to raise their herds and flocks, to try and make a living in a hard and tough industry and economic climate.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Modern seating behind the Ravilious Rotunda Bar.
Designed in Streamline Moderne style by architect Oliver Hill, with sculptures by Eric Gill, the hotel was built by the London Midland & Scottish Railway and opened in 1933. It finally closed in 1998 and lay derelict until it was restored in 2006-2008 and reopened as a hotel again.
Leek Livestock Auction, Leek, Staffordshire. October 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
My second shoot for The Rural Eye archive project, and the staff and customers at Leek were really getting used to my presence and the idea that I am 'on their side' so to speak.
I had a cuppa and a long chat with Bruce Daniel, one of the senior auctioneers about the work. Bruce told me about how Leek is the last livestock market in all of Staffordshire, as my research had suggested. In fact there used by many, one every 12 miles at least, ensuring that no farmer had to walk his cattle more than 6 miles to market. There was a livestock auction in my own town of Newcastle-under-Lyme until 1994, but in the last few decades they have closed with farmers now having to drive their cattle to Leek or other auctions over the county borders.
Today I found myself really engaged with the animals, especially the sheep who are fascinated by the camera pointing at them. I do find something rather surreal about the sheep, of course their situation of being sold for food or breeding is something they are unaware of, but they always carry a worried look that as a human I can't help but translate anthropomorphically. As an ardent meat eater, I feel that I am gaining an understanding of the industry that feeds me, and I am not seeing anything negative at all, just people doing their best to raise their herds and flocks, to try and make a living in a hard and tough industry and economic climate.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Another engaging trip to Market Drayton, albeit on a very cold day. I took a large number of prints from the other visits up with me and gave them to Bob Oakes and the staff as a thank you for their help. It was nice to see him take them around and show them to people who were featured and I will need to ask him to put some names to those faces in a future visit.
I was planning to leave the cattle out for the most part, and so I concentrated on the people and again with a mixture of formalised portraits and reportage. There is something very beautiful about the background interiors at this site, particularly in black and white, the tonal values seem to all compliment the people and their own clothing too. I did however visit the back of the building and photograph some of the animals as it was so cold that I wanted to get that across. I also photographed at the very back where I hadn't previously realised that there was an area for washing out trailers and cleaning everything off, presumably for disease control rather than pure aesthetics.
Each trip to Market Drayton Auctions leaves me inspired to keep going and gives me the belief that there are always more ways to show, to present and to make photographs, while all the time giving me such a rich subject matter in a welcoming environment.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Another engaging trip to Market Drayton, albeit on a very cold day. I took a large number of prints from the other visits up with me and gave them to Bob Oakes and the staff as a thank you for their help. It was nice to see him take them around and show them to people who were featured and I will need to ask him to put some names to those faces in a future visit.
I was planning to leave the cattle out for the most part, and so I concentrated on the people and again with a mixture of formalised portraits and reportage. There is something very beautiful about the background interiors at this site, particularly in black and white, the tonal values seem to all compliment the people and their own clothing too. I did however visit the back of the building and photograph some of the animals as it was so cold that I wanted to get that across. I also photographed at the very back where I hadn't previously realised that there was an area for washing out trailers and cleaning everything off, presumably for disease control rather than pure aesthetics.
Each trip to Market Drayton Auctions leaves me inspired to keep going and gives me the belief that there are always more ways to show, to present and to make photographs, while all the time giving me such a rich subject matter in a welcoming environment.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
View from the first floor landing to the ground floor lobby and the reproduction Marion Dorn rug.
Designed in Streamline Moderne style by architect Oliver Hill, with sculptures by Eric Gill, the hotel was built by the London Midland & Scottish Railway and opened in 1933. It finally closed in 1998 and lay derelict until it was restored in 2006-2008 and reopened as a hotel again.
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Another engaging trip to Market Drayton, albeit on a very cold day. I took a large number of prints from the other visits up with me and gave them to Bob Oakes and the staff as a thank you for their help. It was nice to see him take them around and show them to people who were featured and I will need to ask him to put some names to those faces in a future visit.
I was planning to leave the cattle out for the most part, and so I concentrated on the people and again with a mixture of formalised portraits and reportage. There is something very beautiful about the background interiors at this site, particularly in black and white, the tonal values seem to all compliment the people and their own clothing too. I did however visit the back of the building and photograph some of the animals as it was so cold that I wanted to get that across. I also photographed at the very back where I hadn't previously realised that there was an area for washing out trailers and cleaning everything off, presumably for disease control rather than pure aesthetics.
Each trip to Market Drayton Auctions leaves me inspired to keep going and gives me the belief that there are always more ways to show, to present and to make photographs, while all the time giving me such a rich subject matter in a welcoming environment.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...