Marlborough Alleyways

Well, a while back, when conducting a ‘teaching photography safari’ in my fabulous hometown of Marlborough in Wiltshire, UK one of my students asked me about the history of one of our quaint alleyways. I did not have the answer so, I carried out some investigation, to answer the question. What I discovered was a deep history of the naming of these routes radiating from our High Street. And whilst posting to social media, I was introduced (by some lovely locals) to several previously ‘hidden’ places. Hence, The Alleyways of Marlborough project was born. My intention for this ‘hidden in plain sight’ idea was to show parts of the town in ways that few would have thought, and also how they might have looked in past centuries. In all, 24 alleyways were captured! All the images in this project are captured on my iPhone – my preferred camera of choice. And although I do have a ‘proper’ camera, I find that it’s never with me! Whereas my phone is always in my pocket. And what’s the best camera? The one that’s with you! And it’s so much easier to quietly and unobtrusively point my iPhone to capture an angle that wouldn’t normally be expected of such places. I’m a firm believer that great images don’t necessarily require powerful and expensive camera equipment. And, although many still disrespect images taken with a phone, I believe that we are now in a time where images taken on ‘phone cameras’ should now simply be called photography.