Sending a postcard has been a ritual of the British seaside holiday since Victorian times but the convention is now sadly in decline as people share their pictures and experiences directly on social media or send a text to announce their safe arrival.
Using my collection of vintage postcards of St Ives and photographs of the same locations taken with my plastic Holga film camera, I have created collages of the old and the new. The postcard messages – some dating back to the early 1900s – are reassuringly familiar, largely featuring comments about the weather, scenery and having a lovely time!
Digital collage of scanned old postcards and medium format Holga negatives. Image size 10 x 10 cm printed on archival matte Innova cotton rag. Also available as a handmade artist book – see Books page.
2018
A series of photographic collages addressing the Brexit debate. Using my own photographs of the horizon looking out to sea near my home in west Cornwall I have collaged images taken from my collection of First World War postcards sent to and from the frontline. The cards are from both sides of the conflict but the messages reflect universal concerns and longing to be reunited with loved ones. I have replaced the patriotic captions of the time with the equally fervent media slogans and headlines surrounding both sides of the Brexit debate. The view out to sea emphasises the idea of looking outwards and broadening horizons and instead of the divisive nature of the Leave campaign dialogue, extracts from the messages in English, French, German and Italian underline our shared concerns and humanity. The title of the series should leave the viewer in no doubt on which side of the divide I stand!
Digital collage of scanned vintage postcards and digital photographs. Image size 10 x 15.5 cm. Printed on archival matte Innova cotton rag. Also available as a hand-made artist book - see Books page.
2019
Another series of digital collage work using vintage postcards to address contemporary events. Moving the focus from local and national onto global concerns relating to the climate crisis, I have used my collection of 20th century vintage postcards featuring romantic couples in idyllic locations, combining them with my own photographs of the wild and unspoilt Penwith landscape. The couples embody an earlier more innocent age when there was no hint of the environmental catastrophes to come. Each image features a comment or slogan taken from various media sources referencing the climate emergency.
Digital collage of scanned vintage postcards and my own digItal photographs. Image size 10 x 10 cm. Printed on archival matte Innova cotton rag. Also available as a hand-made artist book - see Books page.
2020
A wry look at the current Covid-19 pandemic through the lens of vintage postcards. Using my signature method of combining my own photographs of the local landscape with vintage postcards from the 1940s and 1950s, this series takes a look at some of the very real concerns surrounding this issue.
Digital collage of vintage postcards and my own photographs. Image size 10 x 10 cm. Printed on archival matt Hahnemühle photo rag 308gms.
2020
During the autumn of 1944 my 17 year old mother and her parents, along with thousands of others, fled their homeland of Latvia to escape the invading Russian army. They lived in refugee camps in Germany before eventually settling in the UK after the war in 1947. The Soviet occupation of the Baltic States lasted for nearly 50 years until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the restoration of Latvian independence. During this period Latvia was incorporated into the USSR as a Soviet Socialist Republic, the nation undergoing massive societal change, its people suffering injustice and repression. My grandparents never returned to their native land, my mother only returning to visit family in the 1980s when the country began to open up to the west. She hardly recognised parts of her home city of Riga: the construction of huge housing estates, industrialisation on a large scale and the complete russification of society had changed things for ever.
Using Latvian Soviet era postcards and images from my family photograph albums, I have reimagined her holidays over this period – instead of the usual postcard greetings on the rear, there are listed the many ways in which the Soviet authorities curtailed the freedoms of the population as they tried to erase the Latvian national identity and establish absolute control. 70 years later, we see how little things have changed as history repeats itself with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its associated regime of terror and repression….
Sources
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia https://okupacijasmuzejs.lv/en/
The Keys, documentary film series https://vfs.lv/thekeys/
Communist Crimes https://communistcrimes.org/en/countries/latvia
The Baltic Initiative and Network https://coldwarsites.net/country/latvia/
Digital collage of scanned vintage postcards and family photographs. Image size 9 x 14 cm. Printed on archival matte Hahnemühle Rice Paper, mounted on Arches Platine fine art paper. Also available as a hand-made artist book - see Books page.
2022
