New Set of Postcards now available

A new set of twelve postcards of the Iron Men of Antony Gormley's Another Place at Crosby beach is now available. The set features five popular images from earlier postcards and seven images new to postcard. Individual postcards may be purchased from any of the usual outlets or as a set direct from the shop gallery at www.anotherplacepictures.com

In Camera ... December Storm

Thursday 5th December saw a major storm passing over Northern England and Scotland, Crosby was on the edge of the amber wind warning but still experienced wind speeds of 70mph. The high winds coincided with an extremely high tide at 12.30 which lead to flooding along many parts of the coast as the winds pushed the waters even higher than usual. The promenade at Crosby beach was completely awash and the RNLI Portakabin near Hall Road Coastguard station was wrecked by the high seas.

Somewhere out there are the iron men, submerged under the rough seas.

Ah! There's one of them, his head a black dot emerging at times above the waves.

A few people braved the conditions for a bracing walk in the wind and spray

but it was not a day for sitting in the sun.

Several low lying areas in the sand dunes adjacent to the promenade were awash with sea water.

In Camera ... Postcard AG337

A vibrant, stormy October Saturday afternoon high tide at 3.30pm, a day of rapidly changing weather conditions, sunshine, showers, blue sky, rolling clouds. Just before high tide I went down to Hall Road, the waves were just rolling against the promenade wall. The sky had clouded over somewhat but I could see brighter sky on the horizon and decided to wait. Tantalizing glimpses of sunlight, faint glimmers on the rough water and lots of crepuscular rays on the horizon. One figure was holding my attention, I could see the possibilities if the light changed, if a gap in the clouds just happened to appear in the right place...!

After half an hour the sun burst through for about a minute, full strength and the shots were in the bag. I lingered a while longer but knew I had captured the image I required.

Working on the images afterwards I was reminded of an earlier image, AG 154, which I called "Creation" and which sold out on the limited edition print of 100. On sales to date it looks as though this picture AG337 might prove to be just as popular with collectors of my work. 

In Camera ... Postcard AG330

A September evening during which an ordinary sunset turned into something extraordinary without any warning. I had actually gone down to the beach to shoot a publicity shot for the 2010 calendar, myself holding a copy of the new publication in front of an orange sky. We took the publicity shots just before sunset, but then, just after sunset, this large cloud with a rippled undersurface began to catch the light from the by now invisible sun and glowed with a crimson light. It was a lovely spectacular sky in which the colours intensified as the sun sank even further below the horizon, I had started packing up the equipment but then kept turning back to see even better colours than before. This was nature putting on a spectacular show for the few watchers on the beach at this time of night. Nearly an hour after sunset I moved from my position near the Leisure Centre to near the car park at Hall Road. Now the slow moving cloud was glowing a deep, intense crimson with hints of fiery orange filling the gap between sea and cloud.

I was doing my best to record these spectacular changes of light with time exposures now of up to ten seconds, there was only the glow of reflected light from the clouds now to provide any light now almost an hour and a half after sunset. My wife, helping earlier with the publicity shot, had sat in the car at Hall Road listening to music whilst watching the last half hour slowly fade into darkness. She said it was an amazing experience, listening to gentle background music whilst viewing this incredible light show, one of the best I have ever scene from the beach. Dinner that night was much later than anticipated but we sat talking long into the night, enthused by what we had witnessed.

In Camera ... Postcard AG324

An April afternoon when a north westerly gale was sweeping across the Irish Sea, unusually the sky was clear but the combination of strong winds and high lunch time tide resulted in this stormy looking scene. The tide was actually on the way out but the pressure of the wind was keeping the water higher than usual as I took this shot crouched low to staedy myself and camera against the wind from the steps of the promenade wall.

In Camera ... Postcard AG320

This picture photographed on a hot August day that threatened a storm. It had been a beautifully hot sunny morning, too hot really, and an early afternoon walk along the beach seeking some cooler air was decided upon. Heading down to the beach it was obvious that storm clouds were building on the horizon and going to obscure the brilliant sunlight very soon. The last rays of the sun glinted on the shallow water which was reflecting the dark grey clouds resulting in an unnatural greenish glow. Just as the last light of the sun glanced across the beach I captured this mix of bright sand and water silhouetting the figures against the background of a threatening sky. Ten minutes later the rain was lashing down, obscuring the view completely.

In Camera ... Postcard AG299

Early January, at this time of year the sun sets behind the Welsh Hills, usually a bank of cloud appears to obscure the sun before it sets behind the hills but on this evening, and several others to follow, the sun appeared to disappear directly behind the mountains. The air was calm and little disturbed the scene apart from the odd seabird. I had set the camera up on a tripod and was recording the scene as the sun went down. This bird flew across just as I pressed the shutter, captured in a silhouette which reminds me of Picasso's dove of freedom.

In Camera ... Postcard AG183

Taken in late October, the sun is now setting more to the south west and the Welsh Hills rather than behind the new wind farm at Burbo Bank. A cold day, an icy chill seemed to strike across the beach as the sun went down and the air was suddenly filled with birds, a definite taste of winter on the way.

In Camera ... Postcard AG182

2007 was the year the horizon became filled with more metal sculptures, this time the purely mechanical shapes of the wind turbines but, one has to admit, they can add a certain art form to the landscape. Mid September and the sun sets directly behind the centre of the wind farm throwing their shapes into strong relief against the glowing sky. I liked the contrast between the art form and the mechanical sculptures, the figure from Another Place once strong against the sky is now dwarfed by the new giants on the horizon.

In Camera ... Postcard AG158

This picture was captured late in the afternoon at the end of a November day full of sunshine and showers, one of those mixed weather days when anything can happen. I knew there was going to be a high tide just after sunset and instinctively felt that it would be a good evening for photography. I was down just before sunset as the tide approached and the sky was quite photogenic. As often happens, the longer I waited and the darker it became the better the photographs I obtained. It is a strange paradox, photography depends upon light to make images, but often the best images are made with very little light, long exposures bringing out the best of what little light remains. The time just after sunset, the twilight hour, is, I find, a magical time for photography, especially beside moving water, the air becomes still and the soft light hides many imperfections in the scene.

On this day the dramatic dark shapes of the clouds contrasted well with what little light remained in the sky and I love the way the colours of the sky are captured in the reflections on the water. This was a visit to the beach that was well worth while, not only for the pictures I obtained (have a look at the range AG158 - AG170), but also the experience of just being there, standing alone with the statues, sharing a moment of tranquility and beauty is something that cannot easily be put into words.

This picture was one of the earliest captured that night when the shutter speed was still fast enough to show the individual waves, longer exposures soften moving water.

In Camera ... Postcard AG146

This picture was captured late on an October afternoon. It had been a day of mixed weather, quite windy and some heavy showers. I had been working in the office all afternoon and wondered about getting out and down to the beach for an hour. Around 15.30 it suddenly went very dark, there was a rumble of thunder and the rains came down really heavy. I thought that was the end of my visit to the beach but, just after four, I saw a glimmer of brightness out to the west, it was still raining hard but I thought to myself "There might be a rainbow if the sun breaks through".
I quickly grabbed the camera bag and drove down to the beach by the Leisure Centre; as I arrived the light of the sun burst through a gap in the clouds low on the western horizon. I ran onto the beach setting up the tripod as I did so. Looking inland, to the east, behind me the dark thundery sky created a wonderful backdrop for a perfect arc of a rainbow. It was now only about five minutes before sunset and the light coming through that gap in the clouds would not last very long. It strengthened as I mounted the camera on the tripod and created a brilliant double rainbow. I managed to obtain three decent images before the sun disappeared into cloud again low on the horizon and the rainbow faded away. I was fortunate with my positioning being directly in line with the sun and the figures as you can see from the long low shadows in the picture. The arc of the rainbow covered quite a distance and this image is composed from two overlapping pictures, the only way I could capture both ends in one shot.

In Camera ... Postcard AG63

A late November afternoon, a crystal clear day but not a breath of wind to ripple a pool of water left by the outgoing tide. A stroll on the beach became a wait by this mirror like pool as the sun went down, the passing Irish ferry adding a touch of movement in the stillness.

This shot was actually hand held with the camera a couple of inches off the surface of the sand as I lay flat out on the wet beach to capture the perfect reflection of the iron man. The previous day had been cold and stormy but today was magical. The stillness of the day, the silence of the air apart from the distant throb of the ship's engines carrying across the water and the black silhouettes resulted in a haunting beauty to the end of the day. The sculptures have added their own magic to the Sefton coastline,  making pictures possible where none existed before.

In Camera ... Postcard AG45

This was a very windy clear day in October, days like this are not usually good for sunsets as there are not enough dust particles in the air to refract the light but I decided to go down to the beach just in case. The strong, chilly north westerly was keeping the air clear and the beach deserted - just me and the iron men. The clarity of the air and the clean wide open space resulted in my capturing this image which I feel captures the essence of the sculpture, portraying the insignificance of man against the wide open spaces of nature.
The shot is actually a panorama of two images joined together which helps give a wider  almost three dimensional feel to the landscape, the camera on a tripod, essential in low light and windy conditions.

In Camera ... Postcard AG30

The new postcards are proving to be very popular and I thought I would go through the circumstances in which each image was captured.
This picture was taken just before sunrise in August 2005, not long after the sculptures were placed. I had been waiting for a full moon which, at this time of the year, sets in the north west. The weather conditions had been very settled and I knew that I would have to get up early the following morning for this picture with the setting moon and the pink glow of dawn. The tide was also low which helped show the vast expanse of beach containing several of the figures.
My planning paid off with this mystical image in which the sky is suffused with the glow of the rising sun behind me, the full moon just at the edge of the earth's penumbra and the beach still in the shadow of the earth as the iron men gaze forever westward.
The camera was on a tripod for this shot which was exposed for around half a second in the pre dawn light.