Newsflash...

Benjamin’s been busy.

Not taking pick-churz at the seaside though...

Yes, dear chums, I have had a full-blown swill-out of my internet picture pig-sty, and my formerly fetid fragment of the fathomless photographic digisphere is here before your very eyes. And, though I say so myself, is looking absolutely fabulous, darling, resplendent as it is in its new pastel grey and charcoal tones.

And it’s about time, I hear you proclaim…

How long have I been procrastinating? Geez. Who knows… I don’t want to think about it really. But, finally, my new-improved, tarted-up web presence is here. After a week of remorseless fiddling and faffing, it’s finally (mostly anyway…) finished.

With a mighty digital duster on the end of a virtual pokey-pole, I have reached way beyond the remote and cobwebby recesses of the stairwells and hallways, right into the stale and sweaty nether-regions of my rancid personal-pictures protectorate and had a bit of a bugs and bits blitz... Yes, dear reader, my hands are raised in supplication and confession; it really had become rather weary, confused and disheveled in here (I know how that feels, right?). And with so many other glittering, gorgeous sites that you can alternatively delight in (why, the mind positively boggles at the choice out there, my dears) why on earth would you come here again for the same old clutter?

So, new decade, new thoughts, new look.

Actually, in fairness, some of the stuff is still old (oldies but goldies, I would reflect...) but much is new, including the blog format. Not entirely convinced yet that this is an improvement but I’m sure some of you will let me know. And yesterday, in the midst of all the usual fractious restructuring ructions, there was the grand catastrophe of the accidental archive deletion of all my blog-related online pictures. That’s right. Imagine, if you will, the right-royal sweary-ball-ache of a thing that that was. It evolved into a properly blue Monday round here and make no mistake. For my penance, I am forced to wander the vast, heartless wildernesses of remote slo-mo hard drives for ancient, random files in order to reinstate the older posts’ images, one by painful one... Some will be lost to oblivion, of that I have no doubt.

My thoughts generally though on photographers’ presences and activities online have altered only a little since the last version of the site was instated so, in the most part, are still here for you to scoff at, salivate over or snigger about (after all these years, for the most part, I still liked what I’d hitherto written) but also, along with recent images, I have published many new thoughts and revised notes and captions. Rather like looking back at old portfolios of images though, it's always a mighty challenge when one trawls back into past blogs and writings, raking over the spent embers of former wafflings that once upon a time seemed so verdant and pertinent... Eliot put it best (of course he did):

"...Trying to use words, and every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure Because one has only learnt to get the better of words For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which One is no longer disposed to say it. And so, each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate, With shabby equipment always deteriorating In the general mess of imprecision of feeling, Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer By strength and submission, has already been discovered Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope To emulate - but there is no competition - There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions That seem unpropitious..."

Thanks for that (and for everything else you gave for that matter...) TS.

So, here it is. My new place. It’s not perfect I know and much remains to be done going forward in terms of updating, de-bugging and tweaking the functionality, but you get the general drift towards uniformity of style and content, I hope. And those of you familiar with the old-version site and liked it, I hope you approve of the new look, cos I ain't goin' back there, man (or woman, obviously...).

To those of you who are new around these parts and are poking about the place solely because recent stuff by Captain Pastel-Pants on Twitter has brought you here, I would just like to say: ciao! And do, please, click on the archive; this will take you into the nether-regions of the site’s older images where dark, archival matter lurks; unloved, fetid and mostly forgotten (I know how that feels, right?). Once you have satisfied your hunger for the queer & the quaint (there’s a great name for an antiques and nik-naks emporium) and you have satiated your desire to pick the gristly morsels out of my back-catalogue’s rotting carcass, you might just have whetted your appetite for more snapshots from my ongoing journey.

To those of you who return repeatedly to commit most horrid, profane and plagiaristic skulduggery, and to indulge in cheeky artistic espionage (you know who you are… shameless thieves and foul scoundrels all!) but also to those who just delight in diving indecorously into the dumpster of my latest arty-farty toggery crimes and misdemeanours, the nouvelle cuisine of my most recent snappage awaits your visitation, delectation and misappropriation... So, welcome back one and all and do, please, behave yourselves while you’re in here.

Anyway, I'm going properly stir crazy after staring at a computer screen for what feels like an eternity now, so, if you'll excuse me, I'm off out to the seaside to take some new pick-churz. Then I can start the process of cluttering up the site all over again...

!