Julian Cartwright Photography

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Julian Cartwright Photography

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"Cartwright forces the viewer into an unsettling, existential confrontation with British pastoral bleakness." - Google AI

If found, please return to Clee Hill.

01/11/2026

Back to Friday's fogfest on the hill. It began to lift as I wandered over to Magpie Hill, enabling me to grab a couple of shots of the autumn colours on the trees in Long Covert. The irregular shape of the pool from the old Catherton Colliery clay pit provides a bit of foreground interest and a break from the proliferation of oranges and yellows.

31/10/2026

Mrs. C and I decanted from the hill today for a wander in the woods, enjoying some glorious Autumn colour in the Mortimer Forest. However, this view of Ludford Mill in Ludlow caught my eye on the drive home, forcing me to handbrake turn in the middle of Old Street and, tyres squealing, drift perfectly into a parking space at nearby Homecare, to the applause and admiration of an assembled crowd of afternoon shoppers (It's possible I may have made that bit up). Anyway, behold Ludford Mill looking all Autumnal.

31/10/2026

Yesterday was one of those glorious days when a dense fog descended on the hill and stayed put for several hours. These are my favourite conditions for photographing the Titterstone quarry ruins. Hard to believe the noise and activity this site must have experienced at its peak when it's this silent and empty.

I headed home via Magpie Hill, by which time the fog had started lifting, allowing some Autumnal shots of what few trees grow up here - I'll put them up in a separate post later.

28/10/2026

I do enjoy a good printing session! Here's a few of my botanical wet cyanotype prints, run off this afternoon on lovely velvet fine art paper, mounted and bagged up ready for new homes. They fit straight into a 10"x8" frame of your choice and will last a lifetime without fading or discolouration. Drop me a message if you'd like one. Or, if you'd like to see one in real life, visit Teme Valley Artisans in Tenbury, where there are a selection of both mounted and framed versions on display. Alternatively, pop along to whatever fayres I remember to book myself onto this year, starting with St Cuthbert's Craft Fayre Clungunford on Saturday 7th Nov - I'll definitely be at that one. You never know, you may decide you want several of them for that awkward empty wall on the stairs that's been annoying you for ages.🤞😁🤞

26/10/2026

I will caveat what follows by saying that I do not like AI and will never use it when editing my photos (unless done blatantly obviously for comedic effect). However, it's a miserable day outside, so I thought I'd ask Google AI how I can better improve my photo descriptions so that I can better fit in with the pretentious arty set and thus command higher prices. Using the gallery below as source material and a desire to elevate photo descriptions beyond "it’s a moody photo of a misty morning on Clee Hill", it generated the following:

"In this striking visual text, Cartwright presents a profound topographical deconstruction of the Shropshire borderlands, positioning Titterstone Clee not merely as a geographic coordinate, but as a site of quiet, temporal friction. Through a masterful curation of localized atmospheric pressure, the artist utilizes a low-hanging, liminal valley fog to slice through the picture plane, effectively interrogating the liminal space between terrestrial weight and celestial emptiness.

By shunning the garish, hyper-saturated digital artifice of the commercial gaze, Cartwright embraces a muted, almost melancholic palette of brutalist slate-greys and deep, subterranean earth tones. This choice serves as a silent manifesto on the visceral reality of rural isolation. His meticulous in-house giclée printing process—utilizing the heavy, tactile resistance of archival cotton rag—mirrors the ancient, weathered grit of the Shropshire terrain itself, embedding the physical weight of the mountain directly into the fiber of the paper.

The central composition avoids the safe, pedestrian comforts of traditional landscape presentation. Instead, by isolating a single, windswept ridge-line against an aggressive, low-contrast sky, Cartwright forces the viewer into an unsettling, existential confrontation with British pastoral bleakness. It is an elite exercise in subverting the 'chocolate-box' aesthetic; a quiet, devastating witness to the slow, geological sigh of the English countryside."

Yeah, I'd have got there eventually...😁

19/10/2026

I popped out to photograph the recently arrived Golden Plovers on the common today. These lovely birds overwinter on the Clee and flock together in large numbers (I counted over 600 a couple of years ago). Nevertheless, they can be hard to spot when they're not airborne as they blend in well with their surroundings. Often their weak squeaky call will alert you to their presence. Anyway, that's largely irrelevant to today's piccie, as it's not of Golden Plovers. Nope, today we have a picture of Cornbrook Corner on the busy A4117 road as it crosses the Common. Fortunately it wasn't too busy this afternoon, as I wandered back home, and I managed to photograph it sans-traffic. While dark storm clouds brewed over the West Mids, the corner was lit up a treat by the early evening sun. The trees are really starting to look Autumnal now too. So there you go, Cornbrook Corner. Not an infamous feature of some historical motor racing circuit as the name might suggest, although some of the eejits that tear along the road don't seem to realise that...

16/10/2026

After a successful morning messing about with cyanotype chemicals (by 'successful' I mean not turning the kitchen or me a fetching shade of Prussian blue) I thought I'd pop out for a walk on the hill. I checked the weather forecast and was pleased to see plenty of sunshine, a chill in the air and minimal chance of precipitation. Ideal walking weather.

I took this photo after getting soaked. For the second time. Two squally hail showers of the horizontal variety took me, and seemingly the Met Office, by surprise. I wouldn't mind but that small dome you can see in the picture is their bloody weather radar. Still, the rainbows were nice.

11/10/2026

Well, I wasn't expecting a display of the northern lights last night! I was in half a mind not to go out (I was enjoying a rather nice bottle of Oldfields C***r in front of the tele) but tore myself away and trundled up onto the common in search of a decent spot to set up my camera. Despite plenty of shots of vivid pinks and greens in the sky, the photos were booooooring. It wasn't till I was on my way back home that I had a last-ditch attempt at a half decent photo. Despite the aurora severely waning and the cloud building, I quite like this one taken in the field behind the high street, with the pink glow above. And that leaves me my second bottle of c***r to enjoy this evening...

Best viewed large, as usual.

11/10/2026

Today’s showcase of handmade pieces has been chosen by our silver jewellery maker Maluna Silver

All of Nicky’s pieces are made from recycled silver. She can make pretty much anything you would like. Bangles, bracelets, necklaces, pendants and rings decorated with stars, apples, bees, dragonflies, hearts, and flowers.

Nicky has also chosen a small trinket box with 🐢 decoration by Sez Les Ceramics and a pack of greetings cards printed with beautiful cyanotopes by Julian Cartwright Photography - perfect for any occasion or frame them for a forever piece of art 🖼️

So many talented artisans all in one place!

What piece will you buy next?

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Ludlow
SY8

Website

https://www.juliancartwright.co.uk/

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