MKt14

Photography was never a long-term practical interest of mine, but I have always admired a well-captured image. It is the drama and the emotion of the 'moment' captured that appeals to me more though than the technical merit of the photograph or the photographer's artistic prowess.

We have all taken holiday snaps and family shots and I have a few half-decent 'moment-catching' examples in my collection. My son caught this one while playing around with my camera on holiday.

My first real 'go' with a camera only came in 2013 though! As an engineer by profession, I have started using the camera more and more during inspection and testing work to record the results for my clients.

Sadly though, all the kit I acquired seemed doomed to these engineering snaps, without a person or a 'moment' or an emotion anywhere to be seen in the thousands of images I have taken so far! Doomed, that is until a middle-aged need to find a stress-relieving interest outside of work coincided with a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea at the MK Central Market early one very cold December morning and I had a Eureka moment!

I have always liked markets! The buzz and the 'salt of the earth' stall holders, some larger than life, have always had a certain appeal. To keep smiling and keep up the banter in the often cold and damp conditions of any UK outdoor market must take a hardy sort! 'Fair play' to them all, I say!

And as I ate my bacon sandwich, watching the two traders opposite me, all wrapped up against the cold as they were setting out their stall, I wondered who they were and where they came from and it dawned on me that those guys probably had amazing stories to tell. The more I looked around the more stories and characters I saw: this place was full of rich images for someone like me, interested in capturing something honest and intriguing with real people and in a setting that would change with the seasons!

So there you have it! That is why the MK market is the subject of this project!

As we embark on this, I know full well that that we won't be picking up any critical acclaim for the technical or artistic sides of our record, but if some of the traders buy into this project, hopefully we'll capture something genuine and have something to look back on and have a bit of fun in the process.