Well as I have said before my most favourite Café in the World (and I have been to a lot), is Café Art in Old Town, Swindon. I just love the staff there and they have all become good friends over the years.
So I had an impromptu photo shoot with them yesterday. They were so much fun to photograph. I also wanted to photograph the Café before it changes.
Go visit Café Art, you wont be disappointed.
This morning I spent an hour or so wandering around a very misty Clifton Street Cemetery in Swindon. It was lovely and not spooky at all, as much as I wanted it to be!!!! and unfortunately didn’t see any strange happenings. This cemetery is fascinating as it has lots of old G.W.R. workers graves as well as Commonwealth War Graves. I have only been round a small part of it so far and intend to spend a lot more time there looking around and photographing the graves.
Tuesday 12th Jan saw the first day of the National Junior Doctors series of strike days. There was a good turn out of support on the picket line outside of The Great western Hospital in Swindon. The Junior Doctors were joined by The Green Party and by The Swindon Peoples Assembly who showed solidarity with the strikers.
Well over 5 different days and nights I had the pleasure of photographing the Swindon Panto Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs at The Wyvern Theatre. It was sooooooo much fun, the cast were just great. The Panto itself I never got tired of watching. I also did a couple of the promo shoots where Adam Woodyatt was at Regents Circus and Snow White was at OMG hairdressers to have her hair done.
I took several hundred images over the 4 days of shooting and this is just a very very small selection.
For me a fun Panto season in Swindon.
On Saturday 21st November there was a small (around 50) protest, march and rally on behalf of the Refugees Welcome Campaign. There were various groups attending, from Swindon Anarchists to The Green Party. The one thing they all had in common was that they wanted to show solidarity with the refugees and that more should be allowed into the country.
Today was Remembrance Day in Swindon. I was there as usual and true to (my) form I have recorded some of the faces of Remembrance in Swindon. They are all locals and that includes Robert Buckland Conservative MP for Swindon South and Solicitor General for England and Wales. Along with Justin Tomlinson, Conservative MP for Swindon North and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People.
I had a number of interesting discussions some of which centred around the fact that quite a few of the RBL standard bearers are getting older and wont be able to carry them for much longer there are not many younger people joining and willing to carry the standard at all of these type of events. Despite there being a very large contingent of Army, Army Reservists, Cadets from all three branches of the services not many of them are joining the RBL.
After saying that I am sure this event will continue for many years to come.
Friday evening I spent a very pleasant evening photographing UB40 at the Oasis in Swindon. There was a packed house and of course the audience sang along to all of the songs they played. They were well worth going to see and photograph and I really enjoyed it and listening to comments by others I think everybody else did as well.
Last night James Bay played a concert at The Oasis in Swindon. It was excellent. He sounded exactly the same live as he does on cd/radio etc. really good quality. The lighting was also really good (although as usual first three were not as good as the rest of the lighting show). The Oasis was absolutely full with all tickets sold and James Bay worked the crowd like a seasoned pro.
All in all an excellent gig.
Some of you may be aware that for the last several weeks I have been photographing the demolition of the Carfax Car Park here in Swindon. It is a long term project to photograph Swindon as it is changing and it is changing quite quickly at the moment.
Now it took me a while to get permission and I have done all the relevant HSE courses etc got my own safety gear and only go where I am allowed. I have t say I am so grateful to Lawsons and SCS for allowing me to do this. The intention is to either publish or have an exhibition but that is some way off at the moment. I am also getting to know the crew really well and they are a really nice bunch of guys. These are just a few of them. I just thought I would put a few of them up on here. There will be more to come as I get more and more access to them actually working etc. I have some several hundred of images of the demolition and I want to make a considered selection before putting any up on line.
Hope you like so far.
AJ and The Tribe played at The Reggae Garden Swindon Saturday 12th September.
The Swindon Photojournalist 