Danger, Killer Flowers!

Danger, Killer Flowers!

Before I moved to Ireland, I lived in Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, for my money the most beautiful county in England. If you haven’t heard of it, Letchworth was the world’s first “Garden City,” brainchild of Ebenezer Howard who, along with some other visionary contemporaries, figured that people didn’t just want to exist in industrial hellholes and might, y’know like to actually enjoy things in life. Like life!

One upside to the COVID pandemic was the opportunity to work on personal projects and shoot for fun, because… well, there was only so much on Netflix that was worth watching. I took advantage of the fabulous array of trail routes, (known as the Greenway) and my bike - a Marin Muir Woods in bright green if you must know - and we just rode and shot, rode and shot. And then went home to watch Netflix. Obvs.

The amazing Broadway Gallery in Letchworth wanted to celebrate our buzzing creative community and I was delighted to be part of The Letchworth Open in 2021 with my photograph above, ‘Danger, Killer Flowers’ featuring as part of the exhibition. I remember stopping my bike on the trail in nearby Radwell Meadows after noticing the gate guarding us all from serious danger in the form of wild flowers. With literally no support. Whilst I composed and took a number of frames on my trusty travel camera, a Leica V-Lux (typ 114) for the curious, I kept seeing other people stopping and smiling, which was a lovely thing in the grip of the pandemic in 2020 when we were all out for our permitted one-hour’s socially-distanced exercise. A reminder that fun was still out there, and I hope that gate will still be there in the decades to come.