Back in June I was approached by an American exhibition design and publishing company to ask if they could use a few of my photos of graffiti from the 1970s in a book to accompany an exhibition on graffiti and street art. A week later they came back to me and said they’d changed their minds and would like to use just my photos for the book. They also asked me of they could use 12 of the photos in the exhibition. You can imagine how excited I am by all this.

Here’s a few spreads from the book which has been design by Rob Fever.

The exhibition traces six decades of the extraordinary influence of street culture on contemporary art, photography, fashion, music and activism. The story is told through innovators and legends from graffiti, street art, hip-hop, 2Tone and a wider ecosystem of people willing to challenge boundaries and take risks, reshaping the world around them.

The company is Beyond the Streets and the exhibition will be on at the Saatchi Gallery in London from 11 November 2026 – 5 May 2027. The book will be on sale at the exhibition and through Beyond the Streets’ website.

You can see the photographs from the book (plus a few more) in this album on Flickr. Please note: some of the photographs contain offensive racist and sexist writing. Please don’t look if you are likely to be upset by this.

Despite having retired from being a full-time website designer, I recently completed a small website for a Twitter friend Helen Wilson to help launch her new book The Remarkable Pinwill Sisters: From ‘Lady Woodcarvers’ to Professionals (which will be available soon). The sisters, Mary, Ethel and Violet, worked in Plymouth from the late 1800s creating beautiful carvings for churches across Devon and Cornwall. Violet carried on working almost up to her death in 1957.

Helen has created a comprehensive catalogue of the Pinwill’s work in over 200 locations, which represents a mammoth ten year’s work.

I’ve just added another eight churches to my collection of 360° panoramas of the interiors of Cornish parish churches. On my first foray I photographed Launcells, Week St Mary, North Tamerton and Treneglos. I did visit another four, but they were all locked with only two giving details of a keyholder. Of the two that did, one was out and the other slammed their window shut when I rang the doorbell and wouldn’t come to the door. Not much point in them having the key!

Later that week I contacted the rector of St Conan’s, Washaway to see if I could gain entry there as I know that church is normally kept locked. I was really pleased when he got back to me saying that the church has a key safe to which he gave me the combination. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more churches that feel the need to stay locked took up this idea. St Conan’s is a very small chapel attached to the parish of Wadebridge – the two main churches are Egloshayle and St Breock. It was built in 1883 but it contains a Saxon font, one of the oldest in the country. It also has a 16th century carved wooden pulpit brought from Germany from which Martin Luther is thought to have preached.

While my car was being serviced during a recent trip to Cornwall I took the opportunity to do the photography for a 360° panoramic tour of Truro Cathedral. The cathedral has a policy of allowing photography, but ask for a fee of £5 to use a tripod – which seems very reasonable to me. I made six panoramas for the tour, the west front, the nave, crossing, chancel, St Mary’s aisle and the All Saints chapel behind the high altar.

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Here’s a portrait I did about ten years ago of Oscar winning costume designer Jenny Beavan.

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St Peter’s Church, at Hascombe in Surrey was described by Betjeman as ‘a Tractarian Work of Art’. Built on a site of Saxon origins, by 1862 the medieval church which was then over 600 years old had become so dilapidated that rebuilding was considered the only option. Led by the Rector, Canon Musgrave, Henry Woodyer (a pupil of Butterfield) was commissioned to design a new church. The simple plan of nave and apsidal chancel became a canvas for a richly decorated interior. The walls of the nave are painted with the 153 fishes of the second miraculous catch of fish, all tangled in a net which is being dragged in by seven of the disciples. Above the chancel arch is Christ in Majesty flanked by the 12 apostles. The rood screen (a survivor from the previous church) was restored and repainted. Read more…

I’ve just completed a 360° panoramic tour of St Matthew’s Church, Winchester. The church is quite small so only needs four views: Nave, Chancel, Vestry and Gallery. The earliest parts of the church date to about 1200, but like so many English churches it probably stands on the site of an earlier Saxon building. The church has recently been lovingly restored and is certainly worth a visit. Read more…

While I was photographing at St Paternus’ Church, North Petherwin for some more 360° panoramas for my ongoing series on the parish churches of Cornwall I came across this really touching memorial to three sisters of the Yeo family who all died young in the 1630s.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, here’s a photo of some graffiti on the General Post Office in Dublin on the 60th anniversary in 1976: Freedom Fighters Are Not Criminals.

Click on the image to see it larger.

I’ve just updated six of the 360° panoramas from my series of Cornish Parish Churches. The original panoramas were some of the first ones I ever made and although I thought they were quite good at the time I’d become increasingly dissatisfied with them. The ones I’ve replaced are St Ervan, St Mawgan, St Columb Major, St Columb Minor, St Wenn and Withiel. Read more…