When a picture paints a thousand words…

As part of my ongoing research for The Tarnished Crown series, I’ve been going through my photo archives. I take many, many photos - some to capture a moment I wish to remember but, more often than not, as a resource upon which to draw when I’m putting together a scene, or to add to a catalogue of information on, for example, clothing, interiors, or weapons from a particular region or period.

Middleham castle, North Yorkshire. And friends.

There is also nothing quite like putting a place within the context of its landscape, so a great number of my photos show just that: a castle next to a cathedral, on a river cliff or at the head of a valley.

There is no way that I can remember everything I see, so photos are a perfect way of recording detail that I can later study at my leisure, like this fifteenth century depiction of the crucifixion at the cathedral of Bayeux, Normandy. Here, I’ve taken lots of close-ups of each part and, below, the piece in its entirety. Not only does it show us the level of craftsmanship of the time, but the materials available (indicating trade with other countries), the pigments used, and also the importance of the subject - perhaps easily forgotten in today’s increasingly secular world.

And on another note…

I despair for anyone else having to sift through my tens of thousands of images, and ask myself what they must say about me to the uninitiated? It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? What do your photographs say about you? Are you fascinated by insects or trains, or are most of your pictures of your grandchild or pets? Mine are fairly equally divided between all things historical - and family, animals, places and plants. Whatever they might be, I look back on places I’ve visited and the stories they tell, and anticipate, with equal pleasure, the next on my to-do list.