Dabbler Showcase is a new feature aiming to promote contemporary visual art. Our first featured artist is the Liverpool-based photographer Andrew G Fisher... Bleak, ghostly British seaside resorts feature fairly regularly on The Dabbler, they're our sort of places. Canadian commenter extraordinaire Peter Burnet once remarked: Over here, we love beaches, but we know what ... Read More...
Photography
Alcatraz Island emerged from a bank of fog and I suddenly realized why it’s known as The Rock. Stories of ancient curses, military fortresses and its designation as a National Park are not why visitors flock by the ferry-load to this tourist attraction in the Bay of San Francisco. The ... Read More...
The temperature in London rose dramatically on Tuesday, and not simply because the Chelsea Flower Show was such a hot ticket. Walking through the teeming crowds became quite an ordeal in the heat. Despite the ongoing hosepipe ban, nannying announcements were made regularly over the tannoy to remind visitors to ... Read More...
An old photograph leads Worm to go poking around an old scrapyard in search of the possible inspiration for a twentieth century masterpiece... Last week I happened upon this photograph of WW2 Blitz wreckage (click on it to enlarge - it's from this terrific set of photos), and immediately wondered if ... Read More...
Some people pose naturally. Others go out of their way to pose for certain reasons – to make money, for fame, for art, to be noticed for a cause. On the Continent, the poseurs’ evening stroll along the main street, or promenade, is something of a national sport. Then there ... Read More...
Bryan ponders a 'troubling dream' of a photograph... This is William Henry Fox Talbot’s Nelson’s Column under Construction, Trafalgar Square, April 1844. It is a photograph that has haunted me for some time. The Met’s commentary says it ‘marks the beginning of a new, photographic way of seeing’ which, I think, is ... Read More...
This week Mahlerman turns his attention to the visual arts - the work of great photographers accompanied, as you'd expect, by some remarkable music... Although all Dabblers dabble under the banner of Culture, an almost complete absence of it here in costal Spain invited me to consider what Culture actually is. ... Read More...
As a Christmas treat, The Dabbler briefly goes 3D and with a very special seasonal slideshow (glasses not provided). 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse… If you ever owned a 3D View-Master, you may be familiar with this endearing ... Read More...
Sports historian James Hamilton marvels at the pioneering works of film, sound and photography which, once lost, are now freely available again on the internet, and he ponders their profound impact on our sense of history... One of the joys of sports history is that you get to involve yourself in the work of media pioneers: ... Read More...
My father-in-law is a photographer, and one of the great things about 'have camera, will travel' is that he occasionally gets to go on some fantastic trips. A while ago he was invited to visit the Eastern Orthodox St Catherine's monastery in the Sinai Desert of Egypt by a friend who's ... Read More...
