Genius Loci - weekly digest from Andy Marshall 📸🚐🏛🏕🌳

O Public Road…

You express me better than I can express myself

You shall be more to me than my poem.

Song of the Open Road. Walt Whitman.

Image Of The Week

A little bit of warmth for the short winter days. Sunrise over Salisbury Cathedral.

On My Photo Stories Site

Warp and Weft by Andy Marshall

Photographing the textile was unadulterated bliss - a process by which, at the end of it, I felt as though the tapestry had been woven into my mind through the lens of the camera. Check out the link for the story behind the weave..

From The Shop

Missing the warmth of the sun during these winter days? Here's a collection of photographs to help warm the cockles. Click the link below to see them all.

Wellbeing – Photo Wellness

A growing collection of photographs that resonate and create a sense of wellbeing. Use them to absorb the light or escape into a particular place. Use them to focus or meditate.

From The Blog

Autumnal Glory | Sideclick

Here on the cusp of a difficult winter are signifiers of hope. The trees rage against the shortening days with every hue and colour. On this day, with the lightest of breezes, the survivors from abscission – strike a pose. Continued...

Vanlife

Stayed over near Gatwick last week in the van. I spent one of the last warm evenings of the season watching people fly off in search of more warm evenings.

Driving the van past the Uffington White Horse last week.

All vented out - unseasonably warm last week.

Parked up outside the church at Uffington.

Just hum the theme tune to Jaws whilst looking at this photo.

Decided to use these nifty dividers for the cutlery drawer. Will report back if they worked out.

V'envy

c. 1960's VW Splittie seen on my journeys this week. Love the colour.

On My Coffee Table

The Songlines a book by Bruce Chatwin.

📸 There's a fascinating correspondence between how our places harbour the memories of others through their stylistic intent and through the stories that are attached to them. Reading about the Songlines of the First Nation people of Australia has given me new insights into place and memory.

The songlines are the invisible pathways that criss-cross Australia, tracks connecting communities and following ancient boundaries. Along these lines, Aboriginals passed the songs which revealed the creation of the land and the secrets of its past. In this magical account, Chatwin recalls his travels across the length and breadth of Australia seeking to find the truth about the songs and unravel the mysteries of their stories.

From The Charo's

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design

📸 Can't believe I found this in a charity shop! Bought in Oxford's Oxfam bookshop on the corner of Pusey St and St. Giles'. Peeling back yet another layer of interest on our streets.

A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast.

Hotspots

📸 It's been another mega week of travel. Most of the places I include here are not part of my commissioned photography. It's the stuff in-between. It's all about the journey... From Gatwick up into Oxfordshire and beyond.

Waylands Smithy

Talking about Songlines: surely this would be a sacred 'stop' along a British Songline? Waylands Smithy is a Neolithic chambered long barrow, it was once believed to have been the home of Wayland, the Saxon god of metal working. Hurtled past the White Horse, parked up a couple of miles away and walked through the landscape to get a feel for its context. Evocative place.

With Steve Tomlin as my guide - best woolly hat competition.

Oxford

In Oxford - I love the quirky bits the most.

Tokyo Art & Photography at the Ashmolean.

📸 I had this exhibition on my bucket list and I wasn't disappointed. Every photographer has a way of seeing which is rooted in their context - oeuvre. The ephemeral nature of life in Tokyo, with the constant threat of natural disasters, has produced a body of art work which is is vibrant and shape shifting. Worth every penny.

Came across this remarkable ceiling boss with flying warriors in the Ashmolean. There's so much fluidity in the sculpture that I thought it was made of terracotta, but it's actually carved from sandstone. Love how the feet appear from behind each person - from Southern Rajasthan AD 750-850.

📸 Whenever I go to the Ashmolean I always visit the Alfred Jewel and this little fella. A medieval angel from a chapel ceiling. It looks a bit lonely, isolated in its context, so I decided to set out, that afternoon, with Oxford guide, Steve tomlin, to find its companions in the church it originated from in Ewelme.

St. Mary's Ewelme, Oxfordshire.

When I'm asked about my favourite church I always say: "the last one I visited." But, St. Mary, Ewelme has a special place in my heart. More often than not (even when it's not a commission) I spend a lot of time photographing a church. Here, after I put my iPhone away - I just sat in the wonderful chapel of St. John the Baptist - beneath the brothers and sisters of the Ashmolean orphan. This church is very special. All pics shot on iPhone.

The tombs of Alice Chaucer - granddaughter to Geoffrey.

Medieval encaustic tiles in the chapel of St. John the Baptist

Bury Art Museum

📸 Bumped into Carole this weekend at Tina's Tea Room in Bury Art Museum. Tina's Tea Room is the place to be if you want to check in with all the Bury celebrities, of which, Carole is one.

Carole was the subject of my Bury Art Museum exhibition portrait which has recently finished. She's amazing and was a real joy to photograph. Since the portrait was exhibited she's been called 'Bury's Mona Lisa'. She's often stopped on stairways and asked if she's the person in the photo.

From the Walker Portrait Exhibition at Bury Art Museum.

Bookmarked

The Church Kneeler Archive | Caught by the River | Caught by the River

Lally MacBeth makes a case for the humble church kneeler as folk-art object, and shares some favourite examples from her archive.

📸 Here's my contribution: lovely little kneeler from Church of the Holy Rood, Sparsholt. Anybody else know of a great kneeler design? Send me pics via email or tag me on twitter.

Hunt to find owners of ancient Yorkshire church crafted by Captain Cook's shipbuilders in bid to save it | Yorkshire Post

An ancient church crafted by Captain Cook's shipbuilders survives to this day with a mast-maker's oak posts as pillars and sawn baulks of timber in the roof.