During the summer school holiday in 1995, I rode my mountain bike down Mill road. I recently got my first camera, a Nikon F50, but it was about my bike today. I noticed a little lane leading off that I’d not seen before and cycled down. That’s when I saw the cottages. It was one of the most picturesque little roads I’d ever seen. I smiled at an old man tending to his garden and then I rode off. I had to come back here with my camera.
25 years later, I still haven't found that lane or its cottages. It is something that’s bothered me ever since, to have such a prominent memory failure. After years I just admitted to myself this whole thing must have been in my head. I often go down Mill road with my camera but it’s an awkward mix of new, old, ancient and outright messy. I also have a moral objection to photographing people’s homes in a quiet, rural, non-touristic spot.
Last time I went to Thingwall, Wirral I set myself the task of trying to capture Mill Road. I’ve made some of my worst photographs ever! With my new mantra of “Art doesn’t have to be good” and just going down the directions that appeal to me, I’m trying to see if there are any legs to this project. My theory of Mill Road is what could make the project interesting. Littered with so many little corners of ancient Wirral, that if you’re not careful, the pulsating glimpses of old details can play with your mind, a little mental story of what could have been, but somehow isn’t.
My images where akin to a photographic hit-and-run. I’m just too damn paranoid about photographing people's houses in a street. It makes composing rather careless. Mill Road is a bit of a mess. The chaotic telegraph poles and a hodgepodge of ancient walls repaired with modern rubble. Mill Road certainly has a character. My current plan is to keep doing mini hit-and-runs whenever I visit. build up a pile of images, I need more of the little details. How do you photograph a memory failure? The test strips interest me a little, maybe I could print deliberately too high or low a contrast, maybe even fade with bleach.
I’m a bit too strict a straight shooter but I feel I need to try; this isn’t a straight-shooting concept. The best idea I have of what this project could be is a little scrap book. A little pritt-stick and notes affair. There are a few articles on local history that talk about the lanes history and the Mill’s that stood there. It could be interesting to combine the articles with my images, keep playing with new ways to tackle the concept. A few years ago I also found a curious article about a Lady who walked down Mill Road, saw some beautiful old cottages and a man in the garden. It turns out she never found the cottages again.
