Photographer of the Day : Johnny Callaway (Tenerife 2026)

 we have featured his most excellent work before and he takes many a landscape but also has specialised in band photography too

Johnny says: 

Exit stage right…

By johnnyc1959

No method, no guru, no teacher… just a series of photos from Tenerife that may (or may not) signify something beyond the image.

“Los Cristianos: Still life with vent…” : [ Image (c) John Callaway 2026]

“Los Cristianos: Another green world?…” : [ Image (c) John Callaway 2026]

” El Teide. First there is a mountain” : [ Image (c) John Callaway 2026]

Rarer than the usual (preferred?) black & white but none the less for that . . . . he is at home in the dark of music venues to pastures further abroad . . . . . he started following what I was up to when he was in Nepal I think, or was it Katmandu ? Johnny?

Donovan in Concert - First There Is a Mountain

Donovan in Concert 1972. Live on BBC.

Photos of the Day: [a regular by now] Mr John Callaway

Ideas & Images from Portsmouth and Beyond

By johnnyc1959

…from The Queen’s Inclosure, Cowplain.

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees”. 

[William Blake from his communications with the Reverend John Trusler, 1799]

Sometimes it’s enough just to stand within a woodland and let imagination run wild. To seek out complex structures that depend upon each other to maintain their shape and form. Passageways and footpaths that might lead to familiar places or to other worlds. It’s the imperfect geometry of landscape I look for. The asymmetry of trees; the random intrusions of other flora; the invisible hand of homo sapiens…and the way that sunlight will always seek to create a strange geometry beneath a canopy of chaos.

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life…”  

[Herman Hesse; “Wandering: Notes and Sketches”]

Check out John’s page on Wordpress here . . . . . .

Photographer of The Day - our Johnnyc1969 | HALF REMEMBERED?

 

Half remembered…?

By johnnyc1959

Fragments, memory and ghosts metaphorical and literal, have a habit of creeping into my photography. Sometimes, those fragments coalesce together, triggered by the simple act of re-visiting a particular location. The dormant virus awakes, and before you know it, the view before you has triggered an awakening of memory.

There are certain memories that never really reach your brain. They stay in your blood like a dormant virus…” [Michael Moorcock]

At times it’s the power of imagination that is called into action. The power to ‘see’ the ‘before’…

These days trips to Coventry focus on watching the Sky Blues but I’ll always try to take in a brief trip around the city centre before kick off. It remains familiar despite the many changes since moving away in the early 80’s and the ghosts of memory still have a habit of showing their faces from time to time… 

Anyway…The following images suggest (to me at least), a tripych of sorts. Hence the captions… 

Images below as follows:

“Beginnings…” From Broadgate towards the precinct.

“Renewal…” View from Hertford Street. Demolition underway for City Centre South regeneration scheme.

“Departure….” Coventry Station

(In other news: Sky Blues 3 – Preston North End 0…)

I found Johnny’s entry here especially poetic and it brought to mind the Ghost Town boys The Specials as Two Tone came from there . . . . . . 

Ideas and Images From Portsmouth and Beyond

For John Callaway 2026 

despite being shot in London it always reminded me of their hometown  . . . . . . 

The Specials - You're Wondering Now (feat. Saffiyah Khan) - Coventry Cathedral Ruins, 10/7/19

ART/PHOTOGRAPHY of the WEEK | JOHNNY C

 IT’S A CAR PARK!

On reflection 1: Broad Marsh… Image © John Callaway 2025 

Well there’s my desk top piccie for the next month!

Johnny says: car park here . . . . . . .

A favourite photographer has exhibition : JOHN CALLAWAY [PORTSMOUTH]

John says:

We are but small cogs in the wheels of art and photography, and part of the bigger picture that is POSE25, aka Portsmouth Open Studios Event, 2025. MORE HERE.

If you’re reading this, then you probably know something of what pre-occupies me. If you’ve just arrived at this blog, there’s plenty of clues…

For JOHN PARKE, follow THIS LINK and for JON NEIL, follow this one.

If you’re in Portsmouth over the weekend of25/26 October 25, it would be great to see you. And if you’re not , imagine what you’re missing… 

Meanwhile, “come with us now back to the land before time began…”

Now we have posted photos by John before and from his landscapes to his covering gigs round where he is from they are uniformly excellent and he is always worth checking out . . .sign up to his email and he will let you know what he has posted more . . . . 

 

Striking the right pose… [Image © John Callaway 2013]

check out John’s work here

Photograph (Photographer) of The Week “Johnny C" [John Callaway in Staunton Park 2025]

Not all who wander are lost

J.R.R.Tolkien

Staunton Park… [Image © John Callaway 2025]

Staunton Park… [Image © John Callaway 2025]

Staunton Park… [Image © John Callaway 2025]

 Pathways and portals…

Johnny C says:

By johnnyc1959

"For every entry point, there exists an exit point… even if you can’t always find it…

Not lost…just looking…"

Wonderful stuff, check out his work here . . . .

Photographer of The Week : John Callaway!

    PAUL WELLER Portsmouth Guildhall. 18/10/24- Image © John Callaway 2024]

Now I don’t feature John’s work enough but he is a multitalented fine art photographer who specialises in covering musicians and also his more personal work focussing on the landscapes near and around his home. This week’s feature is the legendary Paul Weller playing Portsmouth from a couple of nights ago and you will not find better work anywhere IMO. Specialising in more B & W than not his work is beautifully seen and covers his wide ranging musical tastes. He also visits music blogs around the net and I am proud to feature his work and occasional comments here

As ever more power to your camera John

You will find his work here

 Ideas and Images from Portsmouth and Beyond

            Ideas & images from Portsmouth and beyond                  

Photo of the week (month? year?) John Callaway - PATTI SMITH at Brighton Dome

Patti Smith @ Brighton Dome [25 June 24]… [Image © John Callaway 2024]

Johnny he say:

"So…for anyone who has hung around these pages before, you’ll know that Patti Smith has been a constant soundtrack for the past 48 years or so. A spiritual and poetic guide since somewhere around 1978. In truth 1976 was the moment that something clicked…Johnny found something he could relate to, with 1978 becoming the moment when abstract thought first became realised through witness….

And here I am again, for the nth time watching Patti live..this time the Patti Smith Quartet at The Brighton Dome. The rock and roll moves are here, at the Roundhouse in 2015, but I’m thinking icon… One photo, one moment in a timeline, one truth teller…

…and once again, Johnny gets the feeling he’s being surrounded by horses…"

 For JohnnyC . . . . .

Patti Smith - Horses (Live,1976)

Images from Portsmouth and Beyond . . . John Callaway

 Thanks to 'forum' friend John Callaway or johnnyc1959, wonderful photographer and blogger par excellence . . . . .for his latest update Always fascinating in my experience but this entry made me think and stopped me in my dumbest tracks. . . . .

Returning to the UK last year after two years of living in Nepal, I wrote that one of the things that had the greatest impact upon me during my time there was the relationship between people and the land. In the west that relationship appears somewhat tenuous with food increasingly being seen as just another consumer good. In a food system increasingly driven by the logic of the market, there is an increasing belief that food has to be cheap, regardless of its intrinsic value.

“The system has broken the bond between the people who produce food and the people who eat it, leading to a decreased sense of mutual responsibility; the dwindling of a vital store of knowledge; and the impossibility for consumers to access information”. [Source: Slow Europe]

The fact that a Dutch scientist has been paid to develop a burger from stem cells extracted from cow muscle tissue which are cultured with growth-promoting chemicals to help them develop and multiply suggests yet another break in the bond between those who produce food, and those who eat it…

Fresh Meat by John Calloway © 2010

Klaus Pilcher on Food Waste

 

The dilemma is best summed up by John Vidal.  “The two visions of feeding the world could not have been more different. The laboratory burger served up in London by scientists proposes patented, heavily processed food that has been developed at a phenomenal cost in hi-tech laboratories and is shipped to the world’s poorest people to keep them alive. The other proposes that agriculture reconnects itself with small farmers and once again becomes a way for countries to develop and to offer better lives for their populations”.

Check John's wonderful pages here 

Images from Portsmouth and Beyond . . .

 and artist/photographer Klaus Pilcher here

Klaus Pilcher

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Despatches from Nepal - John Callaway

The magnificent John Callaway artist, photographer, charity worker, humanitarian and thoroughly decent human being and who just so happens to be my sole/soul Nepalese reader, posts this today and apropos the Doors posting below (which will eventually be across on my DOORS page) seemed incredibly timely not to say in a Jungian manner loaded with synchronicity......he was talking about other doors but it minded me of where Jimbo got the idea for the name of the band................

Doors of perception... John Callaway 2012

One door closes…
by johnnyc1959

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narow chinks of his cavern".

William Blake: "The Marriage Of Heaven & Hell"

Doors closing, (or opening), seems an apt metaphor ............thanks Johnnyc1969
Check out his most excellent blog here one-door-closes

Despatches from Abroad - John Callaway

Field Work -  © John Callaway 2011

 As he was kind enough to get in touch over the 'mysterious' visitor from Nepal here's a posting from JohnnyC. It reassures me deeply that there are people like Johnny around and doing fine & noble work out and about on God's Golfball.......subscribe to his blog mail out. You won't regret it!
 Rock on Johnny C!
Ideas & Images from Portsmouth and beyond.......JohnnyC1959


Johnny reports......

"Women constitute 51.6% of (Census 2001) the total population of Nepal. Their contribution to agricultural production is 60%. The share of total landholdings owned by women is only 10.8%. The average size of their land is just two thirds of that of an average male holding. Only 4% of households have female ownership of both house and land (census 2001). The Land Reform Commission has recommended that the government introduces comprehensive land reform measures, including increased women's rights in respect of land.

The Interim Constitution (2007) has provided equal rights to parental paternal property between men and women. However, there is a disparity between the legal recognition of a claim, its socio-cultural recognition, and enforcement of the claim. A woman may have a legal right to inherit property, but this may remain a paper exercise if the claim does not have socio-cultural legitimacy or if the law is not enforced. There is also a distinction between ownership and effective control of land. It is sometimes assumed that legal ownership carries with it the right of control, but, legal ownership may be accompanied by restrictions on disposal by socio- cultural norms and practices....."

Field Work II -  © John Calloway

Oh, did I mention he's a really fine photographer too?

His blog started out like this..................

Originally started as a blog for a photography course that I started in 2008, it began to have a momentum of its own, even after the course had ended. Music and photography have been constant companions throughout my life. Until November 2009 the day job took precedent over this blog, which accounts for the intermittent postings.
The intermittent nature is likely to remain the same, albeit for different reasons. As of March 2010 the content will begin to reflect my experience as a volunteer in Nepal with Voluntary Service Overseas, an independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. For those of you of a philanthropic nature, you can donate to the work of this organisation here.

Keep the dispatches coming JohnnyC1959...........